Naruto Rising
by ruto-kun-nata-chan
Summary: Finding the truth about his parentage at a young age fuels Naruto's desire to be the greatest Hokage of Konoha. Watch as he takes on the journey of being a ninja with new skills and friends. Naruto Harem.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello readers! This is a rewrite of my original fan fiction NARUTO RISING STORM. The reason for the rewrite is that I got some new ideas to add to the story. So don't go saying that it is stupid to do a rewrite. The basic plot remains similar to the original fiction.**

_**Chapter 1 – Graduation**_

Today was the biggest day in the life of one Uzumaki Naruto. The twelve year old was currently sitting in an empty classroom as he waited for the arrival of his classmates and teachers. Today was the day when he will be giving a graduation exam which will make him an official ninja of Konohagakure. He would be a step closer to his dream of being the greatest Hokage of Konoha.

Slowly and steadily the class started to fill with the students that he had studied with for the past five years. Throughout the years he had only made friend with a couple of students only because they had shared the same interests which were sleeping, eating and pranks.

Finally the two teachers entered the class who had been the ones that were conducting the exams for the past two days. One was Iruka while the other was Mizuki. Naruto for his part only liked Iruka of all the academy teachers that had thought the classes so far. The said man was the only teacher that was actually concerned with Naruto's learning. Most of the teachers saw it fit to ignore the blonde and some even went as far as _trying _to sabotage it. But even through all this Naruto was doing well in the academy.

The first day of the exams was the on the theory knowledge for one to be a ninja from mathematics to chakra Knowledge and also likes of History. The second day it was on physical aspects of ninjas which included taijutsu and weapons. Naruto had barely scored a passing grade in the theory exams while he was among the top ten in the practical exams only beaten by a few Heirs of Konoha's most revered clans.

Today's exam consisted of the nin-gen-jutsu aspects of shinobis. Each student was to perform the **henge**, **bunshin** and **kawarimi** no jutsus. In Naruto's view only the **kawarimi no jutsu** was something that could actually used by ninjas in a fight since his mind always wondered of the cool fights he would have when he would be a ninja. But also the blonde never denied the usefulness of **henge no jutsu** since it had helped him in some sticky situations and also while playing pranks. He felt that the **bunshin no jutsu **was one of the most stupid jutsu ever created since a trained ninja could easily spot the difference between the original and clone but the main reason was he still couldn't form a **bunshin** of himself.

He watched as Iruka gave a good luck speech to all the eager-to-be-ninjas and then entered the room adjacent to commence the exams. One by one students were called upon into the room to perform the said jutsus. Until now all the students that had entered the room had come out wearing Konoha's hitai-te be it on their forehead, waists or arms signifying they had passed the exams.

"UZUMAKI NARUTO…" spoke the voice of Iruka from the speaker loud and clear.

It was finally his turn as he quietly got from his seat and walked towards the room. On his way he watched most of the class glaring at him and sending dirty looks towards him while some called him 'dobe (dead last)'. The glares and dirty looks were something Naruto was familiar with as he could remember such looks given to him by mostly all of Konoha as young as he could remember. But till date he could never understand the prospect of almost everyone in the class and also the entire academy called him a dobe. The only thing he was a dobe was the theory section but still they needed a reason to laugh and tease him.

He entered the adjacent classroom in which the two examiners were sitting and the exams were being conducted. He silently listened as Iruka went into what he had come to describe as 'Lecture Mode' and spoke of the usefulness of the three jutsus. He somehow was able to keep his complete attention to the said lecture even though he had heard it about a hundred times by now.

"Good Luck, Naruto!" said Iruka with a smile on his face.

Naruto first went onto perform the **henge no jutsu **and was really tempted to use his special version of the jutsu. He finally decided on the Sandaime and transformed into the said old man.

Iruka checked on to the transformation and found no flaws in it and he didn't think there would be any since in front of him stood the blonde creator of the most dreaded jutsu. The transformation earned Naruto full points in the register.

The second jutsu Naruto used was the **kawarimi no jutsu **as he substituted himself with a plant in the room.

Iruka went on to check on the minute details of the jutsu and this one also earned Naruto a full points.

It was finally time for Naruto to perform the third and the final jutsu and earn his hitai-te. But this same jutsu caused a concerned look to pass on both the instructor's face. The blonde in front of them though not the best in the academy was still an above average student if you look past his theory results and the use of the **bunshin no jutsu**.

Iruka was genuinely concerned for the blonde with hi inability to use the said jutsu but that was not the case with Mizuki. Though on the outside he showed concern on the inside he was smirking at the prospect of the blonde's failure.

Iruka and Mizuki watched Naruto as he focused his hand in the _**Tora (Tiger)**_ hand seal instead of performing the required three hand seals.

'IDIOT! Even though he knows he is unable to perform the jutsu he decides to skip two seals. Well that is surely good for me…' thought Mizuki as he was laughing inwardly.

'Naruto what are you thinking!' thought Iruka has he had come to expect surprising things from the blonde.

Both their thoughts were interrupted when they heard the blonde called out the jutsu and what happened after that. While one was smiling the other mouth was wide open and was seething in anger inwardly.

The jutsu that Naruto had performed was the **mizu bunshin no jutsu** and had created three perfect water clones of him. After coming out of the shock Iruka went on to check upon the clones and found no faults in them which earned Naruto full points.

"I applaud you for passing the exams, Naruto…" said Iruka as he handed the blonde the hitai-te.

"… But if you wouldn't mind telling me where did you learn the jutsu from?" asked Iruka.

Naruto knew that he was not obliged nor asked to tell the two in the room where he learned the jutsu from after all ninjas were allowed to keep their secrets. But who was he kidding; the person asking him was the person who had helped a lot throughout the years at the academy and also the one who treated him to FREE RAMEN.

_Flashback to a month back…_

_Currently Konoha's number one prankster blonde was sitting in the sofa in the Hokage's office. Today was one of the few days that the blonde was not here to be reprimanded for the pranks he pulled nor was here to force the Sandaime to take him to eat ramen at the Ichiraku ramen. The boy was unusually quite today and looked to be thinking about something._

"_So what is that you need of me, Naruto-kun?" asked the Sandaime as he took a seat on the sofa next to the boy._

"_I was here to see if you could help me with the problem of the __**bunshin no jutsu**__ which Iruka-sensei said would be in the graduation exams. I know u said you are Hokage and can't help me, you can't be bias and all that stuff. But I really tried hard, I even asked Iruka-sensei and did all what he told me, but I still can't perform the jutsu. So I came to ask your help", said the blonde as he looked a bit dejected._

_The Hokage was in deep thought; he had known of Naruto asking Iruka to help him with the said jutsu. Iruka had given all possible pointers he could to the blonde to help with the jutsu. But the Hokage knew for someone like Naruto with huge chakra reserves, a jutsu like__**bunshin**____would be impossible unless he had perfect chakra control and Naruto's chakra control was the worst of all. Thinking for a few minutes, the Hokage took out two blank papers and started writing on it._

"_Choose one Naruto-kun…" said the old Hokage as he handed the blonde the two pieces of paper._

_As Naruto took the papers and found both of them containing a version of the __**bunshin no jutsu. **__One paper contained information on __**mizu bunshin no jutsu**__ and the other contained information on__** doseki bunshin no jutsu**__. He didn't even take a second to think as he grabbed the one with the water variant._

_The Sandaime was surprised to see him choose the water variant without a second thought. At first he thought of asking him why but let it slide. But unknown to the Sandaime there was indeed a reason he chose the water variant. The Sandaime decided to give the blonde both the jutsus as he had obeyed and chose only one._

_Flashback end…_

After explaining it to Iruka, Naruto walked to in the classroom where the other students were presents only to find the glares and dirty looks to be intensified. But even among those looks there were a few happy while about a couple of curious looks.

After the end of the exams, Iruka walked out of the class and congratulated all for passing the exams telling all to file in their ninja registration forms and be present three day later in the this classroom for team assignment.

After class Naruto was currently sitting on his favorite swing in the academy grounds as he watched on students being congratulated by their parents for passing the exams. It was not like he was missing his parents – oh hell! Who was he kidding! He was missing them being in his life even though he knew they would be proud of him for doing his best. He was missing the part where he could hold their hands, to have a celebration with them and see them smile when he would proudly speak how awesome he was in the exams. A tear drop made its way from his eyes down his cheeks as he thought of it. He decided that it was better to walk back to his place which he could now call his home.

On his way as he was jumping from rooftops, he felt a familiar chakra presence behind him and stopped on one of the roof. A few seconds later the person that had been following him for most of the duration walked towards him.

This was the moment of truth for Mizuki as the boy in front of him already spoiled his long thought plan. He was sure that the boy would fail the exams because of his inability to perform the **bunshin no jutsu** but the blonde had also seen his inability and had asked the help of the Hokage. He knew the reason behind the blonde's inability to perform the jutsu and so did Iruka, the boy just had too much chakra and horrible control over it. He had seen the boy ask Iruka to help in the jutsu and saw Iruka do his best to help him but he along with Iruka knew it would need perfect chakra control. Iruka could had given him the similar jutsu he performed but couldn't since it was not in academy list and he was an academy teacher but that didn't stop the Hokage.

The reason Mizuki needed the blonde in his plans was because he had seen his ability to avoid the ANBU and jounins of the village when he would prank someone/something. He knew well enough that only someone of the boy's caliber in stealth could do the job but he had to pass the exams. Mizuki had thought over how he was going to convince the blonde to work for him and had finally come up with a good reason (after all even if the boy was better good at practical stuff he was a still an idiot in his eyes).

"Good I finally caught up to you Naruto! I had to talk to you about the test…" said Mizuki as he approached the blonde.

"Ah! You are here to congratulate me for the tests, aren't you Mizuki-sensei! –ttebayo…" said Naruto.

"Indeed you did great! But because of the use of a jutsu other than the standard academy one you are supposed to pass a supplementary test…" said Mizuki.

Naruto looked at Mizuki in confusion 'what is he thinking! Is he taking me for a fool! There was no such thing as supplementary test for such a stupid reason. The one who gave me the jutsu had said and that was old man Hokage' thought Naruto but still he decided to play.

"Indeed sensei! I will also pas this supplementary test, -ttebayo", said Naruto with enthusiasm to which Mizuki smirked.

_...Later that day in the Hokage's office…_

Currently sitting in the Hokage's chair was the old Sandaime as the young Naruto stood in front of him behind the desks. Currently the old man was massaging a huge headache as he was rubbing his forehead because of the information he got from the young blonde in front of him.

Apparently one of the instructors of the academy – Mizuki had asked Naruto to steal the forbidden scroll of sealing which was kept in the Hokage's library in the Hokage tower itself. The chuunin had even given the boy a layout of the tower along with information on the guards. He couldn't understand how the man had come to know of the said scroll since it was only known to the jounins level and higher ranked ninjas also the ANBU patrols.

The second reason was that it seemed Mizuki was intending to use Naruto to steal the scroll from the start since he thought that the boy would surely fail. But still somehow he had made Naruto steal the scroll and surprisingly to the Sandaime the boy had seen through the lies.

The third reason was that even after the detailed information where the scroll was kept and the guard over it, it still should be impossible to steal it. But the boy always seemed to do the impossible! He was standing in front of him with the scroll on his back and no one knew until he showed himself knew the scroll was missing.

Naruto had given the old Hokage the recount of the things that had happened after he left the academy and watched the old man think over it. He first stole the scroll before he appeared before the old man because he didn't wish to be handed a fake scroll. The scroll was supposed to have AWESOME jutsus and he was asked to learn a jutsu from it.

"Naruto-kun this will be your first B-rank mission to see what Mizuki wants with the scroll. Also you will be accompanied by one of the ANBU-nin from he shadows…" said the Hokage as he made a special seal.

Naruto looked behind him as he sensed a presence behind him to find himself facing an ANBU. The Anbu wore a porcelain mask resembling a cat with three red stripes – one vertical stripe on the forehead and two horizontal stripes, one on each cheek and purple violet straight hair.

"You would be seeing that no harm comes to Naruto-kun throughout this ordeal but you will mostly remain in the shadows…" said the old Hokage with a serious face as he addressed the ANBU.

"Hai Hokage-sama", the ANBU said.

"… And now that all is ok, I think I should make it look real that I stole the scroll…" said Naruto as a grin spread across his face.

The Sandaime and the ANBU didn't like the grin as they both knew it was the grin which the blonde had when he played a prank.

"Sorry ANBU-san…" Naruto said as he looked at the ANBU which confused the ANBU.

Naruto brought his hand in the _**Hitsuji (Ram)**_ seal and said, "**Oiroke no jutsu**". As Naruto performed the jutsu he was covered by a cloud of smoke and when the smoke disappeared in his place was a girl a couple of years older than him. The girl had blonde long hair which were tied in two pigtails and was completely naked with a cloud of white smoke covering the two important assets of woman. The said girl winked and blew a flying kiss at the old Hokage.

Looking at the girl in front of him, the Sandaime lost his consciousness as he flied backwards of his seat with blood flowing out of his nose. Meanwhile the ANBU just looked at the girl in horror and if it wasn't for the mask the boy and the old kage would have seen the ANBU's face red with anger.

Naruto undid the transformation as he looked at the ANBU and bowed low and said, "this was the only jutsu in my arsenal that could take down the old man. I know the jutsu would offend any woman and I know you are angry too, hat is why I am sorry again."

The 17 year old Uzuki Yuugao knew the young man in front of him was one of the biggest prankster and from what she had heard so far he didn't have much in terms of manners. Well that was something she would accept from him knowing him as he was not only an orphan but the most hated person in Konoha. She had just joined the ANBU ranks about for six months and had encountered the boy on number of occasions when he pulled of his pranks. She had no hatred for the boy for what he contained as it was the Yondaime who did the sealing and even the Sandaime trusted the boy. But now seeing the boy use such a jutsu which could be called a disregard to any woman she was really angry at him. But he went on to apologize which caught her off guard and his apology seemed truthful so her anger disappeared.

'Seems there is more to the boy than it meets the eyes…' she thought.

"Very well! But we should take our leave and don't worry I will around you in the shadows…" she said as he came out of her thought process.

"You don't need to worry about me I'll be fine –ttebayo…" said Naruto as he jumped out of the window followed by the Yuugao in his shadow.

…_In a clearing in the forest…_

It had been about five hours since the time Naruto and Yuugao had left the Hokage tower and arrived at the clearing with the scroll along with Naruto and her in the shadows. Meanwhile in the village a huge uproar had taken place when the news of Naruto stealing the forbidden scroll of sealing. The present ninjas all wanted Naruto to be punished severely for this act while some called out for his death. The Sandaime ordered everyone to find him and bring him alive while he asked two of his ANBUs to trail Mizuki. Iruka had also heard of the news of Naruto stealing the scroll and was looking all over for him.

Meanwhile with the duo in the clearing, Yuugao couldn't believe the boy in front of her. The blonde had opened the scroll the moment they had arrived in the clearing and started learning the first jutsu which was written in it. At first Yuugao wanted to stop him but didn't as that would blow up the cover for the mission. But looking at hi now he couldn't believe her own eye with the progress the blonde had made so far. Suddenly she felt a chakra signature approach them and she readied herself. It seemed that she was not the only one who noticed the signature as she saw Naruto's change in behaviour.

"There you are!" Naruto heard a familiar voice call out to him.

Naruto looked up and saw Iruka stomping up to him. The blond grinned as he jumped up and pointed a finger at him, "Hah! Found you Iruka-sensei!"

"Baka!" Iruka shouted as he stopped in front of his blond student, "I found you!"

"Hehehe, I guess you did sensei", Naruto replied as he rubbed the back of his neck.

Meanwhile in the shadows Yuugao decided to see how things play out. She aw that Naruto completely trusted this person named Iruka. But she didn't intend to take any chances as Mizuki and Iruka were teaching accomplices.

"But still you found me really fast as I was only able to learn a jutsu from the scroll…" said Naruto to which Iruka looked confused while Yuugao raised an eyebrow in annoyance.

'One jutsu he says…' she thought.

Iruka took a look at Naruto and found him to be exhausted and also saw the surrounding to be ruined. 'He has been training hard that I can tell…' he thought.

"Naruto why in the world did you steal he scroll?" asked Iruka trying to sound irritated.

"What do you mean I stole the scroll…" said Naruto making an annoyed face. "Mizuki-sensei said it is a supplementary test since I used a different jutsu which was not in academy list to pass."

Naruto than went on to tell how he met Mizuki as he was heading home. He talked about how he used something which was not in the academy list to pass so he had to give a supplementary test for stealth.

Yuugao couldn't believe her eyes as she saw the blonde act. If she didn't know all about this before he would think it was all real. The boy was a natural actor which would come in handy in hi shinobi life.

Meanwhile Iruka's mind was processing the information that Naruto jus gave him and came to a conclusion – Mizuki was using Naruto for his own benefit.

Suddenly all three members in the clearing heard whizzing sound heading their way or to be more precise towards Naruto.

Before either Naruto or Yuugao could react Iruka pushed Naruto out of the way and took the attack on himself. Several kunai came out of the trees and impaled Iruka in the leg and arms. The chuunin instructor looked up and scowled, "I see so that's how it is."

"Wow you got here pretty fast!" everyone heard the voice of Mizuki from the branch of a tree. "Give me the scroll Naruto", Mizuki commanded holding out his hand as he looked at Naruto.

"No Naruto, don't give the scroll to him!" Iruka shouted.

Meanwhile Naruto just stared at Iruka in shock because it was the first time in his life he saw someone protect him directly from an attack. He knew Iruka didn't hate him like most people but he never wondered he would go so far.

"W-what's going on?" Naruto asked though he knew what was going on it was a part of mission he was supposed to play.

"Mizuki used you to get the scroll!" Iruka said, "That scroll contains Konoha's secret and forbidden Jutsu. He lied to you so you would do his bidding!"

"Oh I'll tell you who's lying Naruto", Mizuki said with a smirk.

Iruka looked over at Mizuki and saw the smirk on his face, it was then he realized what the white haired traitor was going to say and his eyes widened. "No Mizuki don't say it, you know it's forbidden!"

Naruto looked back and forth between his two senseis in confusion as this was the first time in the night he was truly confused, "what do you mean? Who's lying?"

Meanwhile Yuugao understood what Mizuki was about to say when Iruka said it was forbidden. She was about to move in when she looked Naruto and saw it in his eyes asking her to stay hidden so she reluctantly did so.

"They've been lying to you your whole life, ever since the degree of twelve years ago", Mizuki looked at Naruto with an insane grin.

"Twelve years ago?" Naruto shook his head, "I don't understand."

"No! Mizuki don't!" Iruka shouted.

"Haven't you ever wondered why were you hated?" Mizuki questioned making the blonds eyes widen. "Why you were ignored? Why people treated you like you were worthless! Like less then dirt!"

"Mizuki stop it now!" Iruka shouted to no avail.

This was too much for Yuugao; the man in front of him was breaking the law and intended to tell Naruto the secret. The secret could destroy the blonde from inside and she didn't want that as she had already seen his potential and didn't wish to go it in waste. Her eyes again traveled to the blonde's eyes and the thing she saw shocked her.

'It couldn't be… he knows…' she thought calming herself before she did something stupid.

"I'll tell you why Naruto", Mizuki sneered, "you see what they don't want you to know, was that the Yondaime did not actually kill the Kyuubi. Instead he sealed it away inside of a new born baby…"

Naruto began to tremble as he thought 'so that is why he asked me to steal the scroll. It was about killing two birds with a single stone…'

Mizuki gin widened as he spoke, "you are the child he sealed the Kyuubi into! You are the nine tailed fox!"

As Naruto heard this from Mizuki's mouth he closed his eyes as a single drop of tear fell from his eye. Mizuki was his sensei for the past two years and still the man though of him as the fox. 'What is it going to take to make People realize that I am Naruto and not the fox…' he thought.

Again he heard the whizzing sound as he opened his eyes to find a fuuma shuriken heading towards him. But before he could act to dodge the weapon, Iruka jumped in the path of the projectile which was now stuck in his back.

Naruto just watch in shock and muttered, "Why?" Even Yuugao was shocked at this.

"Because we're the same", Iruka said with guilt lacing his words. "I was just like you, back when I was in the academy I was so lonely, so I played the fool. I know what it's like to feel that kind of pain, it hurts doesn't it? I'm so sorry Naruto; I should have done more to help you."

"Hahaha!" Mizuki laughed behind them, "That's a good one Iruka! But we both know you hate him more then anyone! After all, it was the demon who took your parents away!"

Naruto was completely shocked at what he heard both Mizuki and Iruka say. He got out of his shock as he gently laid Iruka to the side as he smiled at him and then turned towards Mizuki as he glared at him. Meanwhile Yuugao also came out of the shadows as she let the other two know of her presence.

Iruka looked at Naruto and than at the ANBU as he thought 'what is going on here?'

"I'll handle it from here…" said Yuugao as her hand made toward the sword on her back but was interrupted by Naruto's voice.

"No he I mine…" said Naruto.

Yuugao looked at Naruto and once again was amused gone was the prankster and hi place stood a shinobi. She had watched him put his point in front of the Sandaime and later watched him learn those jutsus but watching him now caused a small blush appear on her face. She was really happy that she was wearing a mask right now.

Mizuki at first was completely shocked with the events that had happened so far. The Kyuubi-brat had not reacted has he had thought were he would have a nervous breakdown at the news but he looked more resolved than before. Second was the sudden appearance of the ANBU which had caught him off guard. Finally he composed himself knowing that in front of him stood an average academy student and what looked like a young ANBU operative.

"I don't what happened to Iruka-sensei's parent or he hates me or not. But if you lay one hand on my sensei, I'll kill you!" Naruto declared giving Mizuki a defiant glare.

"Hah! I'd like to see you try demon!" Mizuki shouted with an insane grin.

Naruto put his hands in the specific handseal for the jutsu and began amassing his chakra for the advanced version of the jutsu he learned that he had seen in the scroll and called out, "**Tajuu Kage Bunshin No Jutsu!**"

Both Iruka, Mizuki and even Yuugao gaped as hundreds if not thousands of Naruto clones appeared within the forest. They were every where, a literal see of orange that almost blocked out all of the green of the forest.

"What's wrong Mizuki-teme? I thought you were going to kick my ass!" one of the clones shouted.

Another cracked his knuckles, "well if your not coming to us, I guess we'll just go to you!"

The clones all jumped up and headed towards the terrified traitor.

Naruto grinned as he looked down at the mass of black and blue flesh that had at one point been Mizuki.

"Hehehe, maybe I went a little too hard on him", the blond said with a sheepish grin.

'Unbelievable' Iruka thought in awe. 'To have learned such a powerful kinjutsu in less then a few hours! He said that he wanted to be surpass all the Hokages and watching him now I'm beginning to believe he just might do it.'

Meanwhile Yuugao who was busy tending the wounds of Iruka was barely holding her surprise. She had seen Naruto master the **Kage bunshin no jutsu** in a matter of an hour and saw him skip the jutsus related to it just giving it quick glances but here she watched him use the advanced version of the jutsu to the level at which even the Sandaime couldn't.

Naruto walked towards the injured Iruka who asked him and the ANBU to know what exactly was going on here. Yuugao went on to explain how Naruto had come to Sandaime and explained to the Hokage his doubts and was asked to take it as B-rank mission with her shadowing him.

If at first Iruka was amazed, now hearing these entire events he was truly proud of Naruto. He exchanged his hitai-te with that of Narutos calling him a proud shinobi of Konohagakure.

_**End chapter**_

**Well not much changed from the original fiction, only change is I skipped the 1****st**** chapter. Well it is not like it never happened but I intend to do it through flashback. Why! Just for fun! **

**Notable change in the chapter is I introduced Yuugao and even went on to reduced her age from 22 to 17.**

**As it was in the original story, I will be skipping part which I deem stupid to write.**

**Now for the girls that will be paired with Naruto:**

**Hinata**

**O.C.**

**Haku (let her die or not? And yes she will remain a she)**

**Yuugao**

**?**

**?**

**?**

**You can put your opinion for the ? Pairings. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello readers,**

**Now let's get to you some facts before I proceed with the story;**

**Naruto started the academy with students his age group.**

**Naruto never failed the exams, this was his first try.**

**Naruto has no romantic feelings for Sakura.**

**Naruto still loves to prank people.**

**Naruto is oblivious to Hinata's feelings.**

**Also don't go asking to remove Hinata from the pairings of any of my Naruto fictions. I WON'T BE DOING IT!**

_**Chapter 2 – The day after and team 7**_

…_Day 1 – after graduation exams…_

Naruto woke up at the sound of the alarm clock and found himself in a huge bed. This was not the bed in the apartment which was given to him by the Sandaime when the orphanage in its infinite wisdom had thought the blonde was ready to leave a life on his own when he was five. The bed was in the house which he had come to call his 'Home' for the past six years after finding the most shocking truth about his life.

It was around a few days after his sixth birthday that Naruto had stumbled in this house while he was running away from a mob of dunk people. Normally people would mostly ignore him or look at him with those cold eyes or talk about him when he was in vicinity about the demon he was thinking he would not hear (?). But things would intensify around the Kyuubi festival as the mental abuse would intensify and a few times a few drunken people be a shinobi or a civilians had hurt him.

…_**flashback six years back…**_

_**Naruto was currently trying to catch his breath as he hid behind a tree which was situated in what looked like a huge compound. As he was hiding there his mind wondered why this was happening. He never understood why people looked at him with those mean eyes and why he was not allowed to play with other children. **_

_**But for the past few days things had turned worse since at first people would only look at him with those mean eyes but after the big festival which they termed as 'YONDAIME FESTIVAL' the mean looks had intensified and few even went on to throw stuffs at him. **_

_**But today as he was returning from Ichiraku ramen store he had lost his way and ended up in an alley way. There he had come across few people who smelled really bad as they talked out loud and laughed at everything. But as their eyes fixed on him their laughter became very loud which had scared him as they talked something about 'revenge' 'loved ones' 'kill' 'demon'. Soon those people started attacking him with the bottles they held and anything in their vicinity.**_

_**Somehow with tears flowing down his eyes and cuts and bruises on his small body he was able to escape them as they could hardly properly walk. When he thought he had escaped them he was hit by stones as he looked back to find them chasing him. He somehow was able to outrun them through the alleys and jumped over a compound wall to save him from those people. Even though tears ran down his eyes he was able to see that the moment he touched the compound wall a blue glow spread throughout the compound and what looked liked black lines spread along with it.**_

_**Meanwhile the group of people didn't understand what was going on since the boy jumped into the air and suddenly disappeared. They thought it was some trick of their eyes since they were heavily drunk. They walked off mumbling about missing the chance to kill the demon.**_

_**Unknown to anyone but a few the place Naruto disappeared was a clan compound which was hidden to all eyes unless you were member of clan or a friend. The compound was hidden with high level genjutsu and Fuinjutsu placed on it.**_

_**After about what seemed like eternity Naruto sneaked out of the protection of the hiding spot behind the tree. He decided to take a look around the place he was currently hiding. At first glance he could easily tell that this place was similar to one of the clan compounds he had heard the old man Hokage tell him about. But with the way the plants and grass had grown he could tell the place was abandoned a long time ago.**_

_**Gathering a lot of courage the young blonde made his way towards the only house that was in the compound. As his small hands reached he handle of the front door the same thing that had happened when he jumped the wall of the compound. A blue glow in shape of a dome became visible and black markings started to appear on the dome. A moment later the door to the house opened and it took a few minutes for Naruto to see it open and enter the house as he was awed watching the blue glow (after all he is a child).**_

_**He walked into the house and saw the dust that was spread at the very entrance and knew this place was not stayed in for years. He decided to explore the house and was awed at how awesome this place (the house is similar to the Hyuuga house i.e. Japanese style house) was even though it was dusty.**_

_**The house had a lot of rooms as and each and every room was spacious enough to accommodate the entire of his apartment which was given to Naruto by the Sandaime. He had also come across a room which had lot of toys and stuffs which young child would play with. He was really tempted to enter the room and play with those toys at his hearts content as he was never allowed to have them at the orphanage. But the blonde focused himself to the main task to find out the something about the people who lived here long ago.**_

_**Finally the blonde came across a room which was clearly the largest of all the rooms he had seen so far in the house no mansion. The room held a giant bed and behind the bed was a really giant frame with a picture of blonde haired male and red haired female as they held each other and were smiling at the camera. **_

_**Naruto didn't know what was going on with him as he in what he one could only describe as a trance walked towards the frame. His hands gently traced the two figures in the frame as h himself didn't understand what compiled him to do so. **_

_**After what soon looked like an eternity as he kept staring at the two people in the frame he finally broke of the stupor. He had a vague idea of who the blonde haired man was but he had never seen such a beautiful woman in his life. His eyes finally landed on the table next to the bed to find a book laid on it. He picked up the book and read its title 'The tale of the gutsy ninja'. **_

…_**End of flashback…**_

Last night was a was a real turmoil in his view as he learned that there was someone other than the Sandaime who believed him but also learned it was a hard road to prove to all he was not the fox but Uzumaki Naruto. He promised himself to work even harder than before to achieve his dreams and also to make his parents, the Sandaime and Iruka proud of him.

Also last night he learned the **Kage Bunshin no jutsu **while he performed the advanced version of the jutsu trusting hi chakra reserves, the **Tajuu Kage Bunshin no jutsu**. He had also taken the note of the jutsus which used the similar applications as the **Kage Bunshin no jutsu** which he had decided to work on later. Finally there was the second jutsu he was learning before Iruka's arrival, he knew the day he would master the jutsu he will have a very powerful jutsu in his arsenal.

…_Day 2 – after graduation exams…_

Currently Naruto was in the Hokage's office submitting his ninja registration form. Naruto had put on his best ninja attire to look cool in the profile photo. He was currently wearing blue shinobi sandals, dark-blue cargo-shinobi pants with a ninja-belt strapped to it. The upper body consisted of a blue tee-shirt with dark-orange jacket over it with the back of the jacket having the Uzumaki spiral in dark red color. The hitai-te was tied to his right shoulder and his goggles were missing as the young Uzumaki decided to let his hair loose.

The Sandaime couldn't believe the boy in front of him was the same orange jumpsuit wearing Uzumaki Naruto. It was like looking at the past as he recollected young Minato and Kushina sitting there handing him their ninja application forms.

"Well everything in the form looks appropriate", said the hokage examining the registration form.

"It could have looked more awesome if I had applied some face paint", quietly muttered the blonde, but the hokage caught on to the words.

"Face paint?" said a surprised hokage.

"Yes, you know to look more badass; but couldn't get paint to match my outfit", said the blonde with a dejected look.

"Oh! I see", exclaimed the hokage with a big sweat drop.

Before they could continue their conversation, Naruto saw a figure of young boy enter the room to attack the old man yelling on top of his lung about defeating him. If that was not enough, the young boy tripped on his way on his very long scarf. He saw the look on the Hokage's face and knew it was a normal occurrence as he had heard from the old man himself about his grandson's attacks (?) on him.

The entire day than went on him helping the young boy learned his Kage-killer jutsu after the boy made him his boss because he punched the boy even after learning he was the Honorable Grandson. He learned of the reasons the boy whom he came to know as Konohamaru for attacking his grandfather. Than he went on to beat the crap out of the boy's special instructor with his new Super Kage-killing jutsu (**Harem no jutsu**) and giving a valuable lesson to a young aspiring child.

'I feel like an old man…' he thought as he cried anime tears.

…_Day 3 – team selection day…_

Naruto arrived at the academy early then all as he occupied a seat near a window in the class. The blonde was daydreaming of competing in a ramen eating contest as the class started to fill with students. As he came out of 'Oh! SO AWESOME DREAM', he noticed the seat next to him was occupied by Uchiha Hitomi and next to her sat her brother Sasuke.

Uchiha Hitomi and her twin brother Uchiha Sasuke were the lone survivors of the Uchiha massacre that happened about five years back. The genocide of the entire clan was carried out by their elder brother Itachi as he wanted to test his powers, was what Naruto had heard some jounin's speaking. After the incident the two were treated as royalties of the village as everyone called them the 'Last Loyal Uchihas' and in his views they got everything on silver, no, gold plates. In the academy almost every girl was a Sasuke-fan while no boy tried to hit on Hitomi as she had he reputation as the ice-princess.

There was only one thought going through the blonde's mind, 'OH! NO. IF…'

As on cue his thoughts were interrupted by a loud cat fight at the door of the class. The two fighters in question were Sakura and Ino as they came up to the seat the trio of hem sitting on.

"Naruto-baka, get up from the seat. I am going to seat next to Sasuke-kun", screeched Sakura.

"Sakura I came here before the teme, so why should I move?" asked Naruto in a calm voice as he really didn't wish to deal with the two especially Sakura today.

"Naruto no baka, how could you ask Sasuke-kun…"said Sakura fuming with rage but was interrupted by Ino.

"Shut it forehead, hey Naruto mind giving me the seat", said Ino (yes Ino is nicer to Naruto.)

"Sure", said Naruto and started to get up.

"What? How could you give Ino-pig your seat?" shouted Sakura.

"Simple; she asked, you ordered", said Naruto to Sakura as it was he obvious.

The class was enjoying the small show as they knew it surely would be more fun as time passed by. Hinata looked at the scene and felt a bit of anger watching the rudeness in Sakura's voice while Hitomi was inwardly laughing, but kept on reading the book in front of her as she had an image to keep. Chouji kept eating his chips; Shikamaru thought it was too troublesome to worry about as he knew the blonde would resolve the matter while Shino agreed with Naruto's reasoning but kept a stoic mask on outside. Kiba and Akamaru were trying to hide their laughter as Sasuke who was brooding thought for a second that it didn't cause him any problem but put aside those thoughts and returned to brooding. Meanwhile Ino was sporting a large grin of her victory while Sakura was seething with rage.

"Oi, Hitomi please can you lift the book of the desk", said the blonde.

Hitomi looked up from the book and saw the blonde sitting on the desk. She took her book of the desk, knowing full well Sasuke was not going to move much. At that very moment a punch flew past Naruto's head which he dodged on instinct but lost his balance because of his awkward position on the bench. He closed his eyes to lessen the pain of the fall. He didn't know why but his mind/heart screamed for him to close his eyes as he was going to be a lot of pain and he decided not to ignore them and closed his eyes.

Naruto's P.O.V.

The pain never came but he heard the whole class gasp as if something very dangerous or stunning had happened. He tried to understand why he couldn't feel the pain from the fall as his mind/heart screamed of. He felt that his hand had grabbed onto something soft but not only his hands but his lips had touched something soft and warm and his tongue had invaded something slimy. To know what it was he opened his eyes to see that his lips were on Hitomi's lips, his tongue had invade her mouth, to put it simply he was locked in a deep kiss with Hitomi and if that wasn't enough his hands were placed on Hitomi's breast.

'Oh I am so in trouble, she is going to beat me like hell… no I am sure she is going to kill me… but still to die finally having my first kiss, no, deep kiss and also getting a feel of those soft mounds… I can die happily…' he thought.

Hitomi's P.O.V.

Hitomi was also in her own thoughts as she was having a kiss, no not just a kiss but was having a deep kiss with Uzumaki. She didn't know how but his tongue had gained access in her mouth as she felt their tongues touch each other. But if that wasn't enough his hands were placed on her breasts. She knew it wasn't his fault, but how could she let this go by.

Sasuke's P.O.V.

He was busy brooding when he heard the entire room gasp. He looked up to see the reason of all the gasps but the scene he saw completely shocked him as the dobe – Naruto was kissing his sister. Only one thought rang through he is mind, 'if Hitomi doesn't kill you, I will surely kill you DOBE.'

Hinata's P.O.V.

Hinata was all red in the face as she couldn't understand was she angry or rather embarrassed. She knew it wasn't Naruto-kun nor Hitomi's fault as the one to blame was Sakura but seeing Naruto-kun kissing another girl was making Hinata furious and also embarrassed.

Normal P.O.V.

'Troublesome', thought Shikamaru seeing what had happened while Chouji had his mouth wide open and the bag of chips had fallen to the ground. Shino had his eyebrows raised over the glasses while Kiba was first dumbstruck at first, but when he came out of his stupor, he muttered, "lucky bastard", getting a positive bark from Akamaru (though nicknamed ice-princess – Hitomi was still famous and good looking). Ino couldn't understand what she was to think but felt a bit embarrassed watching them while Sakura was dumbstruck as it was her fault after all.

Naruto could clearly see the shock in the eyes of Hitomi and vice versa as he slowly was pulling out of the kiss. But his male nature took over at a time like this as his hands gave a gentle squeeze to Hitomi's breasts. His eyes met with Hitomi's eyes as he saw pure rage in those two black orbs.

'I am so dead', thought Naruto.

Meanwhile Hitomi was thinking to let it slide knowing it was not the fault of the blonde , she felt Naruto's hand squeeze her. She was now seething with rage. Only one thought rang though he mind, 'you are so dead, UZUMAKI.'

After 15 minutes we find a battered and bruised Naruto with Hitomi standing over him with her fist clenched in a punch. After that she went and took her seat as Naruto somehow got himself in a seat in back of the room.

5 minutes later Iruka entered the classroom which was filled with all of the graduates to be selected in their team. His eyes searched for Naruto but when he found the blonde in back of the class he looked as if he was badly beaten.

"Now someone mind telling me as to what happened to Naruto?" inquired Iruka as he seemed a bit worried.

"Nothing happened, Iruka-sensei", said Hitomi in a cold voice but Iruka saw a small tinge of pink on her cheeks.

"RIGHT Uzumaki?" Hitomi asked looking at the blonde with a menacing glare.

"Y… Yes… nothing happened… got my self hurt… while training", stuttered Naruto which surprised Iruka.

Iruka knew something had happened between Hitomi and Naruto as he looked at their small change in behaviour also the entire class would once in a while glance at the two. But at the moment he had more important matters to take care of so he let it slide for now. He took a roll call of all graduates to see if all were present for the most important day of their life. After knowing all to be present, Iruka gave a long speech about the life a shinobi and how the village expected great things from all of them. He then started announcing the teams that were formed and names of the jounin sensei of each team (no one knows who are members of team 1 to team 6 and no one cares).

"Now team 7 consists of Hanuro Sakura, Uchiha Hitomi, Uchiha Sasuke…" said Iruka when he heard a loud scream of joy and a bang on the table.

"True love wins. Take that Ino-pig", screeched Sakura.

"Now let me continue Sakura. As I was saying team 7 consists of Hanuro Sakura, Uchiha Hitomi, Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto, your jounin sensei will be Hatake Kakashi", said Iruka.

"Iruka-sensei isn't a team made up of 3 genins and 1 jounin?" asked Hitomi, which was the thought going through most of the students mind.

"Yes… but you see Hitomi as the class compromises of 31 graduates, either one student was to wait for next year's batch or a spot in one of the existing teams. Hokage-sama thought it would be unfair to a student who wouldn't be selected after all his hard wok. That is why there is an odd team formed this year", explained Iruka.

"I understand what you mean Iruka-sensei and I don't mind being part of a 5 man squad but why it has to be team 7", said blonde sounding a bit irritated.

"What do you mean Naruto?" asked a confused Iruka.

"I don't have a problem of being on a team with Hitomi and Sakura, but I know one thing for sure Sakura hates me. As for Sasuke-teme, I know he has a pole stuck in his back but still he doesn't get along with anyone other than his sister, but we two get along the worst", said the blonde making a face saying 'you-know-it'.

There was an uproar in the class at what the blonde said about Sasuke as the boys roared out in laughter of which Kiba was the loudest while the girls (Sasuke-fan-club – almost all girls) screeched as how could the dobe say something to their Sasuke-kun. The only girls not shouting were Hinata and Hitomi as Hinata was tying hard to hold back her laughter while Hitomi couldn't understand either to laugh or be angry at the blondes comment. She knew what he said was right as she was trying to improve her brothers attitude for long now but he was also in a way insulting her bother.

As for Sasuke he didn't care what others thought about him but still a scowl left his mouth hearing the blonde's words. But he also agreed with the blonde that they both never got together on anything and the more members on the team the more hindrance for him to achieve his goals.

Finally after calming down the class with his '**Ōgaku no jutsu (Big forehead technique)**' Iruka spoke, "I wasn't the one who made the teams, it was Hokage-sama. Now continuing forward team 8 consists …" (they are the same team formations so no use to write).

…_3 hours later…_

It had been 3 hours since lunch break after team announcements as the 4 members of team 7 were currently sitting in the classroom waiting for their jounin-sensei. The other teams were already picked up by their respective jounins and had left, even Iruka had left. Sasuke was busy brooding as Hitomi was sitting next to him and reading some novel. Sakura had already given up on her attempt to ask Sasuke for a date (for now) and was busy looking at her self in her mirror while Naruto was reading a book on sealing arts. It was first time in his life that Naruto was feeling irritated even though he was reading a book on Fuinjutsu.

"WHATS UP WITH OUR JOUNIN-SENSEI", shouted the blonde startling the other occupants of the room.

"Dobe have some patience", said Sasuke.

"PATIENCE, teme, I had it for the past three hour", said Naruto. Naruto went up to the door and unsealed some stuffs from a scroll.

"What are you doing Naruto-baka?" asked Sakura.

"Simple I am going to show him what happens to those who irritate me for something so stupid. He is going to be a victim of one of my pranks -ttatebayo", said Naruto with an evil smirk which caused Sakura to shiver a bit.

"He is a jounin dobe, he won't fall for your stupid pranks", said Sasuke.

"Yes I know, but still worth a try", said Naruto still with the evil smirk on his face.

"You are an idiot even to think of doing it", said Hitomi at which the blonde looked at her direction his face had the biggest grin she had ever seen which caused her heart to skip a beat.

'What is wrong with me?' she thought.

…_30 minutes later…_

Hatake Kakashi was walking the corridors of the academy that led to the room where his team would be waiting for him. Today he was later than usual to pick his team as he had spend more time at the memorial stone because of the very team he was asked to take this year.

Finally he reached the room as he entered the class room opening the door intent to see the annoyance on the face of those fresh academy graduates. But the moment he opened the door a number of things happened one after another. First he was drenched in some sticky liquid, than feathers came out of no where and stuck to him and than an explosion above him sprayed a pink colored dust all over him.

After all the bombardment on him was over, Kakashi found Naruto was rolling on the floor laughing hard along with saying something like pink birdie. He looked at his other students to find a confused Sakura, a brooding Sasuke and surprisingly a giggling ice-princess Hitomi.

"Are you Hatake Kakashi, our jounin sensei?" asked Naruto.

"Yes that I am, and you must be team 7", said Kakashi. The four nodded to him.

Naruto was happy that he got the right guy. 'Serves him right', was his thoughts.

'Is he even a jounin…' was Sasuke thinking after seeing the said man fall for such a stupid prank.

"Sorry sensei, I told Naruto-baka to stop", apologized Sakura to Kakashi, but inner Sakura was shouting, _'CHA! That's what you deserve to be late.'_

'That actually worked and to make him look like a pink-bird' thought a surprised Hitomi as she was still giggling.

"My first impression of all of you… I hate you guys. Now meet me on the roof in 10 minutes", said Kakashi in a bored expression to which the 4 face faulted at his words and attitude.

…_10 minutes later, on the roof top…_

Kakashi was sitting by the railing while the genins were sitting in front of him. Kakashi was sitting there completely clean as if nothing had happened 10 minutes earlier.

"Now, we should start with the introductions", said Kakashi.

"What do you mean by introductions, Kakashi-sensei?" asked Sakura.

'Did she just ask that', were the thoughts of all other 4.

"Well you know your likes, dislike, hobbies and dreams and stuff like that", said Kakashi.

"Why don't you start first Kakashi-sensei", said Hitomi.

"Ok." (I am not writing the introductions of Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke, they go as in the manga.)

Hitomi was a bit saddened by Sasuke's introduction as he was still determined to avenge the clan. She couldn't say anything against him on the matter as she too hated her brother for everything he did that night. She only knew it was Itachi her brother who killed all of the clan even their parents. Sasuke was the one who he had seen Itachi's acts of the night when he was put under the **Tsukuyomi** genjutsu.

'So teme wishes to kill his brother…' thought Naruto.

Kakashi pointed at Hitomi to introduce her self as he had already foreseen the types of introduction of Sakura and Sasuke. He was more curious about the introduction of Hitomi as he heard that she was not bent on revenge as her brother also how the blonde had grown as he until now had neglected his existence.

Hitomi came out of her thoughts and spoke, "I am Uchiha Hitomi. I love spending time with my brother, reading novels and training. I dislike perverts, people who don't take their ninja life seriously; especially girls who give kunoichis a bad reputation. My hobby is reading. My dream is to become a great kunoichi making the Uchiha clan and my parents proud of me and also to one day meet him…"

'She is indeed the reincarnation of the ice-queen Kurenai… Ice-princess they call her…' thought Kakashi slightly amused.

Sasuke nodded in agreement as he knew her like and dislikes after all siblings while Sakura was thinking along the lines as how cool both the Uchiha siblings were completely missing one thing hated the most – fan girl kunoichi.

'Typical of the ice-princess' thought Naruto.

'So it is as I heard that she is not focused on revenge as her bother but still there is a chance…', thought Kakashi as he pointed at Naruto to speak.

"I am Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen, especially the ramen at Ichiraku ramen stand and training. I dislike the 3 minutes it takes for ramen to be ready…"said Naruto.

'Does he always think about ramen", were the thoughts of other 4.

"And my dream is TO BE THE GREATEST HOKAGE, SURPASSING EVEN THE YONDDAIME", shouted the blonde standing up and pointing towards the hokage monument.

'A fools dream Uzumaki, but you are a fool after all' thought Hitomi.

"Hn…" grunted Sasuke.

'Naruto', thought Sakura. _'Cha! He is tying to act cool to make Sasuke-kun look bad'_, said inner-Sakura. 'Yes that's how it is.'

'His grown in an interesting way' thought Kakashi.

"Very good and your hobbies", asked Kakashi.

"Eating new types of ramen, pranks", said the blonde as it was supposed to be obvious.

'So I got a fan girl, an avenger, an ice-princess who is unsure about the biggest decision of her life and a ramen addict with a big goal' thought Kakashi.

"Now I would like to tell you that none of you are genin yet", said Kakashi.

"What do you mean sensei?" asked Hitomi.

"Yes we already passed the test", said Sakura.

"Well the academy tests were to determine who were capable of being genins. Tomorrow I will give you a survival training test to see are you genin material or not. Remember well out of all the teams, your chances of passing are only 33%", said Kakashi at which the genins paled. Kakashi continued, "Oh! And I suggest you don't eat before coming to the test or you might throw up. Meet you at 0700 hours at training ground 7."

Kakashi left by use of **Shunshin no jutsu**. The four genins left for their homes thinking of passing the tests for personal reasons.

_**END CHAPTER.**_

**To note;**

**Hitomi is a carbon copy of her mother, a mini Mikoto. Her hair is long, reaching up to stomach area which is held by a single ponytail. She wears a bluish-gray top (no it is does not hug her skin), it has the Uchiha symbol on the back. The lower boy consists of black tights and above a dusty red colored skirt**. **She is termed as the ice-princess in the academy.**

**As for the girls I asked you to suggest for the harem, please be reasonable in suggesting. Don't go asking me to pair Naruto with a girl to old for him. I won't be reducing the ages of anyone else other than Yuugao. **


	3. Bell Test and the Team

**Hello readers,**

**Most of the reviews I have received so far are suggestions of the possible candidates for Naruto's harem and I might say there everyone have their own unique choices. **

**Finally after taking into account all the reviews, one more member has been added to the harem. The identity of the girl will be revealed when she makes an appearance. The reason she was chosen was there will be a lot to explore with her character and it will be real fun that I can assure you for. **

**I should thank - for the suggestion of including her in the harem though I would make some changes to your suggestion. **

**Oh! I didn't mention the name did I. A cookie/champagne (if you are of the drinking age) to those who get it right.**

**As for Haku, I am seriously in turmoil. Her death is a turning point in mental growth of cannon Naruto but my Naruto differs with him on some aspects. If Haku survives she will be part of Naruto's harem and if she dies the slot will be given to someone else.**

**Now lets start with the fiction.**

_**Chapter 3 – Bell test and the team**_

Only about a couple of minutes before the allotted time did Naruto reached the training ground 7 as told by their sensei. He only found the duo of the Uchiha siblings present there as there seemed to be no signs of either Sakura nor Kakashi being there. He had expected Kakashi-sensei being late from what he had heard but he didn't think Sakura would be late as she too knew well enough that the Uchiha siblings always had the habit of being early.

Today he didn't wear the orange jumpsuit which he would wear most of the time as he was in the outfit which he wore when he went to submit the ninja-registration form. The attire was made of blue shinobi sandals, dark-blue cargo-shinobi pants with a ninja-belt strapped to it and shuriken holsters on both the thighs. The upper body consisted of a blue tee-shirt with dark-orange jacket over it with the back of the jacket having the Uzumaki spiral in dark red color. He wore the hitai-te on his forehead as it helped in stopping his hair from obstructing his view.

The Uchiha siblings were not people he really liked to interact seeing that he considered Sasuke a stick-up-he-ass-jerk and he hardly had talked to Hitomi as she had the habit of scaring of guys away from her which earned her the title 'Ice-princess'. But as fate had some kind of fun watching him suffer had seen that he was paired with those two and the girl who seriously had anger-management/mental issues when it came to him. Normally he was not the believer in fate but this time fate had face and name to go by, the Sandaime Hokage.

Now that they were in the same team they would be working together so now was not the time to think of the past and start new. He from experience knew that the only reason Sakura would approach him was to insult or _try _to make him a punching bag because she was upset because of Sasuke not answering her while the brooding-emo-duck-butt Sasuke and the ice-princess Hitomi would never approach him on their own. So swallowing the past Naruto walked closer to the sibling's duo to start a conversation.

"Hey, teme and hime, GOOD MORNING!" said Naruto as he shouted the last part as he was close to them. (Hime is the something Naruto had started calling her a couple of years ago when she received the unofficial title of 'Ice-princess' as he everyone be adult or child treated her like a princess)

The two Uchihas were taken by surprise at the sudden rise in the blonde's voice which they could tell was closer to the voice of Sakura. After they got out of their surprise they found the blonde laughing out loud.

Meanwhile the moment Naruto caught the duo by surprise he couldn't hold back his laughter as a few drops of tears fell from his eyes. It was not because of surprising them to hell but the faces the two portrayed out of surprise/shock. Their eyes had gone wide as they could while their mouth was wide open as a look of pure horror was present on their face. He really wished he carried a camera for such moments as this would be one of the favorite pranks so far. It was not like he wanted to click the picture of the duck-butt who looked more closer to a duck now but it would be good poster picture for 'Sasuke-kun fan club'. But he really wanted a camera to click a picture of Hitomi as she looked rather cute with that face as her hair was also messed a bit.

'Wait cute… the ice princess… I must be he side effect of the kiss we had yesterday… yeah that must be it… THE CURSE OF THE SNOW PRINCESS' thought Naruto.

Meanwhile the Uchiha duo was angry, no, outright pissed. Sasuke grunted in anger but decided to do nothing as he thought everyone lower than him and the blonde was no-clan-nobody. Hitomi was never one to share his sentiments of judging people by clan as she was currently glaring daggers at the blonde and if looks could kill he would have been dead where he stood.

"Uzumaki, How dare you?" Hitomi roared in anger still glaring at the said blonde.

"How dare I what, hime?" asked Naruto with a complete innocent face as if he did nothing.

"How dare you startle us? And. Stop. Calling. Me. Hime" she said as anger was even evident in her voice.

"First, I think didn't startle you as I just greeted you _Good Morning_. Isn't that what one should do every morning when they meet others", Naruto said still with the innocent face which angered her more.

"And about stopping to call you hime…" said Naruto as he took a thinking pose for a couple of seconds "… not happening. You are hime and will always remain hime."

Hitomi couldn't believe as she heard his reasons for startling them she was seeing red in front of her (not the **Sharingan**, the one in the type of the bulls) and his reason for not stopping from calling her hime still remained the same, the one he gave her the first time and continued for the past two years. But today something different happened, as instead of her face boiling in anger it was red because of blushing as her heart skipped a beat.

'What is wrong with me!' she thought as she walked of to rest under a tree.

'I. Am. Alive' Naruto thought as he saw Hitomi walk away. He breathed a sigh of relief as such situations would warrant a beat-up from her.

Sakura arrive fifteen minutes later and saw the three sitting far away from each other and no sign of Kakashi-sensei which she was relieved about. It had taken more time for her to dress-up for her Sasuke-kun which was the reason why she was late. She didn't want to be scolded by sensei on the first day and make a fool of herself in front of her Sasuke-kun. She saw her opportunity as Hitomi was not sitting with Sasuke and walked towards him.

…_3 hours later…_

It had been three hours since the time team 7 was supposed to meet at the training ground 7 as per their sensei's instruction. So the team of four had arrived around 7 in the morning but it seemed their sensei was running late but even after 3 hours the silver-haired jounin was running late.

Naruto had been watching his team for the past 3 hours, as he watched the pathetic ways tried too convince Sasuke to go on a date with her. Seriously that girl in his eyes was shame to the name of all the real kunoichis like hi mother. He watched Sasuke continue to brood completely ignoring the girl who was asking him on a date. Seriously how could the boy keep on brooding, couldn't he just ask her to shut up or go on her date with her. Meanwhile he watched Hitomi who seemed to be in deep thought as if she was planning about something which he wished was not ways to him because of the morning incident. Unknown to him he kept on glancing towards Hitomi from time to time as he was busy doing some odd exercises which wouldn't catch the eyes of his team not that they would be interested in watching him.

So wrong was he as thought two of his teammate ignored him the last kept an eye on him throughout the morning. It really nerved Hitomi when she actually first time in her life liked the blonde calling her 'Hime'. Throughout the three hours she watched the blonde gather leaves and small stones in his vicinity as he held them in his hand for a few seconds and throw away pieces of leaves and stones and gather another and continue the process. Though she had yet to awaken her Kekkei-Genkai the **Sharingan** but her eyes could sharp than normal shinobi because of the Kekkei-Genkai. She could easily tell those were clean cuts as she wondered what the blonde was doing.

Finally Kakashi had decided to grace the young hopeful-genins as he entered the clearing with the classic cloud of the **Shunshin no jutsu**.

"Yo!" he said waving at all giving an eye-smile.

"YOU ARE LATE", screeched Sakura as all the four walked towards him.

"Well, on my way here a black cat passed my road, so to not be cursed by bad luck I came here by traveling from the other side of the village", said Kakashi.

'That's so lame…' thought the four hearing the excuse as giant sweat-drops were formed on the back of their heads.

Kakashi removed two bells and an alarm clock from his pockets as he sat the alarm clock on the nearby stone structure while he jingled the bell in front of the genin-hopefuls.

"Now you are to come at me with all you get with the intention to kill. The ones who get the bells pass, while the others go back to the academy. You have up till noon to get the bells that is about 2 hours from now", he said.

"That's unfair", shouted the four in unison.

"Well who said being ninja is about being fair. Now START", said Kakashi.

As he shouted start was the moment a cloud of dust rose in front of Kakashi stating that the 4 had jumped to hide themselves. He located the Sasuke to his right taking cover behind a tree branch while Hitomi was to the left concealing her with a genjutsu. He found Sakura hiding close to Sasuke while Naruto…

'The siblings are at least are good at hiding as they would probably try a sneak/coordinated attack. As for Sakura even though she has chosen a good spot she is horrible in concealing her presence, is she even trying. And the last one…' thought Kakashi as he spoke, "aren't you an odd one."

Sanding in front of him was Uzumaki Naruto ready to take on a jounin by him self.

"Well you know the test seems a bit odd", said Naruto taking a thinking pose.

"What do you mean by odd, Naruto?" asked Kakashi a bit surprised as someone actually caught on to it and the said person was Naruto.

"Our team in a first place is already odd, but even still I have never heard of a team with 2 genins and a jounin", said Naruto still in the thinking pose.

"I see, so what do you intend to do?" asked Kakashi.

"Well would you mind giving me a bell?" asked Naruto as he reached out his hands and used the 'puppy-eye-jutsu'.

Kakashi was completely taken aback by this as he was ready anything from the blonde as the Sandaime had said 'expect the unexpected with Naruto' but not this.

"Well that's a new approach, but sorry I won't", said Kakashi.

"Well it was worth a try", said Naruto as he hung his head a bit low as anime tears falling of his eyes.

Seriously what was with the blonde who the Sandaime asked to be alert/wary of or the one which the new ANBU recruit Yuugao was impressed with. He really wanted to see how good the blonde was but this was disappointing.

As Kakashi was busy putting his thoughts of disappointment of the blonde away, the said boy charged at him with speed which completely took the veteran jounin by surprise. But he was a veteran, a shinobi who fought in the third shinobi world war, a renowned and feared shinobi through out the elemental nations for nothing as he blocked the punch meant for his stomach at the last moment.

The block didn't dishearten Naruto has he knew he was facing a jounin for Kami's sake who was considered one of the strongest in Konoha. He continued his attack by spinning in the place trying to slam his right hand to the sides of the jounin which again was caught. Taking the jounins hand as support he went for an axe-kick which connected but not with the person but a log.

Kakashi for his part was truly impressed as the boy continued three unrelated/unpredicted attacks with such a flow that finally one was going to connect. He was actually forced to use **Kawarimi **to dodge the blonde's final attack. The boy's taijutsu was unpredictable yet it had a flow to it as he could feel as if he had seen this style before but couldn't remember when or from whom. Kakashi jumped down of the tree as he decide to take the blonde more seriously this time as the blonde charged at him.

The two traded punches with each other in the middle of the clearing i.e. Naruto attacked and Kakashi blocked or dodged. The exchange went on for the next five minutes with Kakashi narrowly avoiding or blocking the unpredictable taijutsu of the blonde.

The exchange resulted in two conclusions to Kakashi about the blonde as one was his taijutsu was the best in the current genins, heck, it was better than some of the chuunins. He knew the boy could take any genin and a maybe even some of the chuunins in taijutsu unless the opponent was a taijutsu specialist. Second was that the blonde was a stamina monster as he hardly seemed winded by the small exchange as he knew the blonde was giving his best.

Finally Naruto recovered some distance from his sensei as it seemed he had yet to land a solid hit. It was something he had already predicted as he was facing Hatake Kakashi. He knew the man was still going easy on him and the only way to land a hit now would be to increase his speed now but he didn't want to give away his little secrets so early. He was already fighting using with the basics of that taijutsu style.

Back in their hiding places the members of team 7 watched in awe at the taijutsu battle between the blonde and their sensei. They had never seen the blonde use such moves during any of the taijutsu spar and could clearly tell he was way superior than all had given him credit for.

"Well your taijutsu is better than what I had heard it to be also it is quite unpredictable…" said Kakashi with an eye smile, "but still not good enough to take the bells from me."

"Thanks Sensei and I just do what I seem would work at the moment…" said the blonde.

"As for the bells, I'll just keep coming at you till I can…" said the blonde as he started to make handseals.

Kakashi's single eye widened watching the blonde go through what looked like seven hand seals as he stopped at the Inu (Dog) seal also his hand seal speed was also quite impressive in his eyes. He watched the blonde inhale a huge amount of wind as Kakashi wondered whether the boy was going to use a wind jutsu.

After feeling that he had inhaled enough air in his lungs adding chakra to it and manipulating the nature of his chakra he called out "**Fuuton: Shipuu Hakai no jutsu (Wind release: Gale destruction technique)**" as he exhaled out a powerful yet condensed gale of wind towards Kakashi.

Kakashi watched the powerful gale of wind heading towards him as he quickly used a **Kawarimi **with a log. From the hiding place Kakashi witnessed the destruction caused by the blonde's jutsu. The jutsu was similar to **Fuuton: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)** but at the same time the wind was more compressed and it also moved at a much greater speed but the destruction it caused in its path was one sight when the cloud of debris and dust settled which it caused in its path. The ground looked like its upper layer was shredded by the jutsu while a few trees in its path were uprooted by the sheer power of the jutsu. Kakashi's visible eye was wide to see the aftermath of the jutsu as he was glad he did a quick **Kawarimi** out of pure instincts as he really wouldn't have liked the result of being hit by that jutsu but it also raised more questions about the blonde.

From their hiding spots the three remaining members of team 7 watched wide eyed at the path/aftermath of the jutsu.

'What was that jutsu? Where did the dobe learn it from?' thought Sasuke with a frown as he thought such a powerful jutsu belonged to the elites like him.

'AHH! How did Naruto-baka know such a powerful jutsu? I bet he must be spying on Sasuke-kun when he was practicing his jutsu…' thought Sakura.

'_Cha! Spying on Sasuke-kun is only our right. How dare the baka spy on our Sasuke-kun' _shouted the Inner-Sakura to which Sakura agreed and promised pain for Naruto.

'Uzumaki! But how!' wondered Hitomi as she watched the boy in awe but still couldn't help but wonder where did an orphan like him learn a jutsu from (she will be the logical one in the team since cannon team 7 seriously lacks one).

A the dust settled Naruto saw the shredded pieces of log in place of Kakashi as it told the man used a **Kawarimi**. He already knew that the jounin would dodge the jutsu but didn't know how. I could be the likes where the jounin would sink underground and use it as an attack which could have been really been troublesome. Suddenly he felt a presence behind him as he turned his head and found the jounin crouched behind him with a serious face and his hands in the Tora (Tiger) seal.

'So fast…' thought Naruto as he didn't even see the jounin move behind him.

Meanwhile in the trees the trio looked horrified at the fate of their fellow genin as the face of the jounin told it was going to deliver immense pain while the siblings recognized his hands set in the seal for a fire jutsu.

"Lesson number one Naruto, never let your enemy get behind you", said Kakashi.

Kakashi leaned forward as he called out "**Konohagakure Hiden Taijutsu Ougi: Sennen Goroshi (Konohagakure Hidden Secret Taijutsu Technique: One Thousand Years of Death)**" as his fingers inched closer to the blonde's butt-hole (Seriously what is wrong with Kakashi). From the corner of the eye he caught the blonde form a Tora (Tiger) seal while a smile formed on the blonde's face as he said something in a whisper. Kakashi was one of the few peoples whose senses could be compared to that of an Inuzuka also he could lip-read as he heard/saw the blonde's words which caused his single eye to widen as it was **Bunshin Daibakuha (Clone Great Explosion)**.

The trio watched as a small explosion rocked the place where the sensei and student. Was this the jutsu their sensei was going to use, was he intending to kill the blonde was what all three wondered. When the smoke from the explosion faded they found the burnt remained of a log, a small crater and nothing else.

In the spot behind a tree where the log he replaced was place, Kakashi just couldn't help but smile under his mask. The blonde had grown far better than he had expected but also it seemed he was also powerful than what the academy reports said to the point he Hatake Kakashi was _forced_ to use the **Kawarimi no **jutsu. But still he couldn't help but wonder where the blonde had learned all this since he knew enough that there were discrimination against him in the academy a the Sandaime had pointed out to him. For now he decided to hunt/test the others since the blonde was nowhere in sight.

Kakashi first decided to see how Sakura would fare and so he sought out her hiding place which was really easy in his opinion. Sakura was a disappointment in his eyes as she had easily fallen for a low level genjutsus__**Magen: Narakumi no jutsu (Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing technique) **and he seriously didn't wish to know what ha caused the girl to scream so loud which he was sure could be heard in Suna. According to academy reports she was smart and had a knack for genjutsus, seriously what was the academy grading the students on he wondered.

As he had expected of the Uchiha siblings the duo attacked him as a unit when they thought that he had let his guard down. Hitomi had trapped him in a **Magen: Kokoni Arazu no jutsu (Demonic Illusion: False Surrounding technique)** which was followed by volley of projectiles from the traps they had set. Kakashi as a veteran was easily able to get out of the combo which he did find impressive. The siblings then engage Kakashi in taijutsu as the two coordinated their attacks really well which could be something to do with them being twins wondered Kakashi. If the genjutsu at the start had impressed him than the next thing the duo did impressed him further as both Sasuke and Hitomi used the distance the two had formed to fire a **Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball technique)**. The two fireballs reached the place he stood and formed a bigger and hotter fireball instead of cancelling each other out. Kakashi used this to his advantage as he used **Doton: Shinju Zanshu no jutsu (Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation technique)** on the two as he dragged both of them inside the ground with only their heads above the ground.

Kakashi crouched in front of the heads of the siblings taking a thinking pose and spoke, "to work as a team… eh... something I should have expected from you two…" and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Naruto leapt from tree to tree to the place where he thought was the origin of Sakura's ear splitting screech. When he finally reached the spot, he found Sakura lying unconscious on the ground with her a horror-struck expression as there were tears flowing down her eyes and foam coming out of her mouth. A shiver ran down his spine as he wondered to what level Kakashi would go in this test as he watched the unconscious figure of Sakura.

It took a minute for Naruto to realize that the Sakura was put in a genjutsu as it was never his strong points. Even now it took him a while to recognize that there was a genjutsu placed on him and it was even harder to break free of the genjutsu. Luckily for Sakura Naruto knew the way to remove a genjutsu of others as he injected a small amount of his chakra into the girl which was enough to release the jutsu.

When Sakura was released from the genjutsu, she started to mutter of Kakashi-sensei was going to kill her Sasuke-kun and she needed to help her Sasuke-kun and ran of in a random direction. Naruto now really didn't even wish to know what Kakashi did or what was on the mind of the girl.

"Thank you…" said Naruto to himself imitating Sakura's voice perfectly.

"Don't need to, we are teammates after all", said Naruto in his voice.

"But that doesn't mean you are better than Sasuke-kun and I won't go on a date with you", Naruto said again imitating Sakura's voice raising it a few octaves.

"But I didn't even ask you…" Naruto was saying in his normal voice when he heard the familiar ear splitting screech.

"… Not again", Naruto said as he sighed running to the place where he heard the girl scram this time.

This time when he reached the spot he again found Sakura unconscious though this time the cause of her unconsciousness was not a genjutsu but were the two heads of the siblings sticking above the ground. Naruto had a good idea of the jutsu that Kakashi had used against the siblings duo and he knew he should help them but that would have to wait a he could hardly hold back his laughter. The scowling faces of the duck-butt-emo-Sasuke and the ice-princess-cute-Hitomi *something was seriously wrong with him since yesterday and he needed to find out was what he thought* was really something he really wanted to capture in camera and show the world.

"If you are done laughing your butt off, mind helping us out of this, Uzumaki", said Hitomi in an annoyed tone.

Finally Naruto controlled his laughter and crouched in front of the siblings as his gaze was fixed on Hitomi, "Mah, mah, Hime don't be so annoyed. It is just to fun to see the two mighty Uchihas buried under the ground."

"He just took us by surprise… next time it won't be like this…" said Sasuke in an angry tone.

"And next time I'll be king of this world", said Naruto as he created a couple of **Kage bunshins** and made them use **Kawarimi **with the sibling's duo as Sakura finally woke up and quickly went to see if Sasuke was safe annoying the boy more.

"What kind of clones were those?" asked Hitomi as she had only heard of solid-elemental clones but those clones were not made of any elemental chakra.

"Ki-mi-tsu (Se-cre-t)", said Naruto with a big grin on his face which caused another skip of heart beat for her which she seriously had to look into.

"How about all of us go assault Kakashi-sensei together… maybe that will increase our chances of stealing a bell from him…" said Naruto as he stood in a thinking pose.

"I don't need your help… last time I was able to touch a bell… we will for sure this time get the bells for us…" said Sasuke as arrogance dripped from his words.

'WHAT? Sasuke-kun already touched a bell… I didn't even get a chance to attempt at the bells… Maybe if I go with Sasuke-kun this time… but he already has his sister – Hitomi… I'm doomed…' thought Sakura as she looked dejected.

'To work as a team' Kakashi's words were the first thing that came to her mind as she heard the blonde's proposal. It did seem good since four people would be more effective than two people so she spoke, "Fine, I'm with you."

This took Sasuke by surprise as he spoke, "Hitomi…" but was interrupted before he could ask anything.

"It looks like a good plan, Sasuke-nii. The odds are better with four people rather than two", said Hitomi clarifying her point.

"Do whatever you want but I am not working with the dobe. I'll get the bells on my own…" said Sasuke as he rushed into hiding trying to formulate a plan while Hitomi looked a bit saddened.

"What about you, Sakura?" asked Naruto looking at the girl.

Sakura was busy thinking about what she was to do in this situation as she could join Naruto and Hitomi as they would than launch an assault attack on their sensei which would be effective. On second she could go join Sasuke-kun as he only stated that he won't b working with the dobe. With her on her Sasuke-kun's side they would easily take the bell for which he would praise her and love will blossom between the two and they will leave happily ever after. On the outside the blush on her face had overshadowed her pink hair.

"I think that means no…" said Naruto to Hitomi pointing at Sakura's face to which the girl nodded as the left to search for their sensei.

The duo of Naruto and Hitomi found Kakashi in the clearing where Naruto had attacked Kakashi. The two looked at each other with an unknown understanding which actually scared both of them a bit as Hitomi jumped in the clearing in front of Kakashi as hands weaved through the required handseals of one of her favorite jutsu.

Kakashi was surprised to find Hitomi in the clearing and didn't think she would be coming after him so early. He watched her weave through about five handseals as he wondered where the other was hiding.

Hitomi ended her hand seal sequence at the Tora (Tiger) seal than she stretched her hands straight in the direction as she said "**Magen: Musuu Chou no renpatsu (Demonic Illusion: Barrage of Countless Butterflies)**" as countless butterflies came out of the sleeves of her top and made their way towards Kakashi.

At first Kakashi was under the impression as the girl stopped at the Tora seal that she was preparing for another fire jutsu as it was a specialty of the Uchihas. But he was surprised when the girl pointed her hands towards him and countless number of butterflies emerged from underneath her sleeves and made their way towards him. The butterflies encircled him as they attacked him from all directions. It was clear that the girl was more into genjutsu than ninjutsu and this was quite a good jutsu.

Suddenly he felt two presence very close to him as he quickly canceled the jutsu and found Naruto and Hitomi mere inches from him with their fists cocked backwards ready to strike him. Kakashi blocked the two fists aimed at him and quickly got some distance between him and the two as he really didn't wish to see how effective an unpredictable form of taijutsu combined with the Uchiha clan's taijutsu would be.

Suddenly Kakashi felt a little uncomfortable as the two didn't follow up with their attack as he saw a grin on Naruto's face while a smile on Hitomi's face. He watched Naruto put his hands in the Hitsuji (Ram) seal and call out "**Fuuinjutsu: Shibari (Sealing technique: Binding)**". As those words left out of the blonde's mouth, a circular seal pattern formed around him from which black thread shot out and started to bind Kakashi who was in a complete shocked state.

"Awesome! It worked like a charm -ttebayo", shouted the blonde as he punched the air with the biggest grin on his face.

"Yes it did", said Hitomi with a small grin on her face (the blonde's happiness is contagious).

"Now Kakashi-sensei we will take those bells of you…" said Naruto as he quickly created a **Kage Bunshin** which made its way towards Kakashi.

Naruto continued talking "… And just to be on the safe side that you wouldn't use one of the tricks in your bag and escape us…" as he and Hitomi weaved through hand seals. Naruto did seven seals ending it on the Inu seal while Hitomi weaved through six ending on Tora seal as both of them simultaneously inhaled wind in their lungs ready for an attack.

Kakashi for his point looked at the duo with a neutral face as the clone of Naruto approached him while the two were on standby with their jutsu. He looked at the centre of the circular seal that had him in a bind to find a fuuda paper with the kanji for bind written on it as the paper was glowing blue. The only way out of this predicament seemed to be flashy with a use of a powerful jutsu but even his hands were in a bind to make seals.

But on the inside there were two things that had Kakashi worried, the first being the duo in front of him as hey were ready to use the jutsus they had already used before. Did the two even understand what a fire-wind combo was capable of wondered Kakashi as he knew that even if the two had not intended it they were in perfect flow to create a combo jutsu. The second was that his peers/comrades were not going to let him leave another day until his death as how he had been trapped by two academy fresh genins and lost the bells to them.

But it seemed today luck was Kakashi's side as the clone-Naruto was close by the alarm clock started ringing signaling it was 'Time Up' as Kakashi released his breath. The look on Kakashi's face old the genin to release their jutsu and that they did as the clone dispersed while the two cancelled their jutsu and released a harmless breath.

"Naruto even the seal…" said Kakashi in a stern voice.

Naruto looked at him for a few seconds as he muttered fine and formed the Ne (Rat) seal and called out release dispersing the jutsu. The black threads binding Kakashi dissolved as he noticed it to be ink as the seal returned back to the fuuda and it burned itself. Watching this Kakashi had to wonder just how knowledgeable in Fuuinjutsu was the blonde. Five minutes later the Sasuke entered the clearing with a scowl on his face and behind him came a disheartened Sakura.

A few minute later we find Kakashi standing in front of his four genins of which two were tied to two wooden poles while two were sitting in front of the other two. The two that were tied to the posts were Sakura who had a look of complete defeat and Sasuke as his scowl on the face had grown bigger (if possible).

"I wish I could send you back to the academy…" said Kakashi as he eyed the four genins stopping for a while on both Naruto and Hitomi "… but I won't…"

This caused the four to look at him in different reactions as Sasuke had a smirk, Sakura was confused, Hitomi a small smile and Naruto had a neutral face.

'I am now one step closer to my goal' thought Sasuke.

'But I did nothing and only kept on fainting…' thought Sakura.

'_It was because of our love and dedication towards Sasuke-kun' _chirped Inner-Sakura doing a victory dance as Sakura found no fault in the logic.

'Did we pass?' thought Hitomi as she tried to make the meaning out of Kakashi-sensei's words.

Naruto just looked towards his sensei with neutral expression as he to wondered about the meaning behind Kakashi's words but a small gut feeling told him that they had failed.

"You should ALL QUIT BEING A SHINOBI" said Kakashi in an angry voice which caused three of them to look at him in horror while Naruto lowered his head with disappointment.

"B… But s… sensei, just because we didn't get a bell doesn't mean we should quit being a shinobi", shouted Sakura.

Kakashi's face suddenly darkened as he spoke, "Did any of you even wonder the meaning behind the bell-test?"

Sakura, Hitomi and Sasuke looked at Kakashi wondering what he was talking about when suddenly heard Naruto answer Kakashi's question, "Teamwork."

Kakashi looked at Naruto for a few seconds as he was able to conclude that the answer the boy gave was not a guess but he actually was certain of it.

"I see, someone actually understands the meaning behind the bell-test. You were all supposed to work as a team to get the bells from me", said Kakashi as it was something rather obvious.

"But you only had two bells. How do you accept us to work as a team?" shouted Sakura.

"That is one of the purpose of the bell-test, it makes a team fight among itself so that we could see whether you are ready forget your own interests and successfully work together", said Kakashi.

"Yet… you guys…" said Kakashi as his eyes this time stayed more on Sakura and Sasuke rather than Hitomi and Naruto.

"Sakura you were completely focused on finding Sasuke throughout the test that you didn't even make an attempt on the bells. You didn't even answer to Naruto's idea of an assault on me to acquire the bells…" said Kakashi as he looked at Sakura while the girl had the decency to look ashamed of her self.

"You Sasuke, worked well with your sister but completely disregarded the idea of working with Naruto because of your 'I-am-superior-than-you-attitude'" said Kakashi looked he looked at Sasuke whose scowl had yet to leave his face but there was a small hint of shame on his face.

"if it was for me I would say you both are ready to be genins but you will be suffering the same fate as your team as here in Konoha a team is given more importance than an individual", said Kakashi as he looked at Hitomi and Naruto.

Kakashi now looked at the four with his expressions darkened as he continued speaking, "Since I don't wish to loose potential genins who understand the meaning of teamwork because of others selfishness, I am giving you all another chance. From now and I am the rules here. You are not to let Sasuke and Sakura have any of the lunch that I have brought with me…" as Kakashi set to lunch boxes in front of Hitomi and Naruto and disappeared with a cloud of smoke.

After a couple of minutes Naruto spoke as he set his lunch in between Sakura and Sasuke, "You can have my share of lunch since I am not hungry."

"I don't need your pity dobe and it seems you like you have a short term memory loss", said Sasuke with the scowl deepened on his face.

"You do remember that Kakashi-sensei said that you were not to let me and Sasuke-kun have the lunch", said Sakura with a bit of disappointment.

"And Kakashi-sensei did say that he is the rules here", said Hitomi though she didn't like one bit of it.

"Yeah I know. But the thing is the two of you would be useless without much energy if we are to fight sensei once again for the bells if you don't stuff your stomachs", said Naruto and at that very moment a roar was heard from three stomachs as they looked embarrassed.

"See that is what I meant. Also I wouldn't mind defying him once more", said Naruto.

"What do you mean by 'I wouldn't mind defying him once more', Uzumaki?" asked Hitomi.

"Eh… I already had breakfast, hime…" said Naruto with a sheepish grin as all looked at him as if he was mad "… that aside; you two open your mouths so I can feed you."

"Fine…" said Sasuke.

"This doesn't mean anything will happen between us", said Sakura as she opened her mouth to let Naruto feed her.

'Damn! She sure is delusional…' thought Naruto but decided to say anything as this was not the moment for it. During the start of the academy he had thought she was cute and even gone and said it to her in hopes of being friends with her though she declined it. She started to change when her friendship with Ino in a rivalry over Sasuke and she used that small memory as a way to put him down though he hardly talked with her after that.

"Yeah, yeah…" said Naruto as he brought his chopsticks forward to feed her while Hitomi decided to feed Sasuke.

At that moment with a loud bang and huge cloud of smoke Kakashi appeared with an angry face scaring all the four academy genins as he spoke in a deadly tone, "You guys…!"

"Pass *insert heart*" said Kakashi in a sweet voice as gone was the angry face replaced with an happy face as he showed his trademark eye smile.

"Pass? But why?" asked Sakura, Hitomi and Naruto in unison while Sasuke just stared at Kakashi in complete confusion.

"You guys are the first", said Kakashi causing more confusion and questions rise among he genins.

Kakashi ignored his students as he continued, "Everyone else would just do whatever I told them. They were all just morons… a ninja must see underneath the underneath."

Kakashi than looked at his students as he said, "Those who break the rules and codes of ninja world are called trash…" suddenly his eyes gained a far away look as he continued, "But you know what? Those who don't take care or abandon their comrades… are lower than trash."

The genins looked at Kakashi as he was the coolest person in the world for at least three of them.

"Tomorrow you have a day off. We start as a team the next day. Meet at this ground by nine." With that said Kakashi disappeared.

…_Hokage's office…_

A lot of shinobis were currently present at the Hokage's office. Everyone was eagerly waiting to hear who of the fresh academy graduates had passed and was now a true shinobi of Konoha. The curiosity this time was greater since the current batch had a lot of son/daughter of clan heads of the major clan of Konoha and also the last 2 loyal Uchiha. Everyone was waiting for Kakashi Hatake – jounin instructor of team 7 to arrive as the said man finally arrived and thus the meeting started.

"Now that the all jounin sensei are present, I would want a report from you about whether your teams passed or failed and for what reasons?" asked the Sandaime hokage to all the jounin sensei.

It started with jounin sensei of team 1 giving the account of what happened in the test he gave as this reports went till team 6. All team sensei had failed their teams. Some couldn't work as a team while some lacked abilities enough to fight for real. Now it was time for Kakashi to give his reports, but was stopped by the Hokage.

"Kakashi since you were last to arrive, you will be last to give your report. Kurenai and then Asuma go on with your reports", said the Hokage. All shinobi's were now very interested as the remaining 3 teams had the heirs of the major clans of Konoha.

"Team 8 passed, Hokage-sama", said Kurenai and recounted the test to the others. The test she gave the academy graduates was to track and capture her within a space of two hours as the team. The 3 genins had used their abilities to the fullest and had shown good team work and cooperation. She also believed the 3 had great potential as a team for tracking and espionage.

"Team 10 passes too", said Asuma. He had given the genins a test to tag him. The 3 as expected had shown good team work and with help of Shikamaru's plan were able to tag him. He said that if given the proper training would carry on the legacy of their fathers and could be the new generation of Ino-Shika-Chou.

The shinobis present were pleased to hear that the six heirs showed potential as per their jounin senseis. Kakashi was the only jounin sensei yet to report about his decision on his team, the team which consisted of the last two loyal Uchihas who were considered prodigies by the academy standards and Konoha's resident Jinchuriki.

"Team 7…" said Kakashi with a serious as he took his sweet time increasing the curiousness of all shinobi present "… passed" finished with an eye smile surprising all.

Everyone present knew the test Kakashi used to test the fresh academy graduates under him to see if they were ready to be the shinobi of Konoha which was the Bell-test. For every team that was assigned by the academy to be an official team of Konoha was for their members to work as a team but the bell-test did the exact opposite. The test forced the academy genins to fight amongst themselves to see if they could put the team above them and if it wasn't enough there were the wicked rules which Kakashi placed by himself. So when Kakashi said that the team passed, everyone grew more curious as to how such a thing happened as they looked at Kakashi for answers whose nose was again buried in the orange book infuriating the females present.

Even the Sandaime was curious as he eagerly waited for the report by the masked jounin but it was not yet coming as he spoke, "Kakashi, the report?"

"Oh! Yes! The report!" Kakashi looked up from the book with a sheepish eye smile to which all sweat dropped as he continued, "the first to attack me was Naruto. After him the sibling's duo attacked me as a team as one would expect from them but they failed. Surprisingly the next to attack me was the duo of Naruto and Hitomi. Neither of the four were able to get the bells from me as I gave them the same choice to choose which I give all the teams and luckily they took the right choice."

Sarutobi knew that he wouldn't get the masked jounin to speak more than he already did but this report had also raised many questions which he decided to ask, "Kakashi you didn't mention anything about Sakura? And what happened when Naruto attacked you alone and also along with Hitomi?"

Kakashi once again looked up from his book and answered, "I didn't mention Sakura because she didn't make an attempt on the bells and as for the results of Naruto's attempt on the bell, he wasn't able to get the bells."

Though it was something all had expected but only a few caught onto the uneasiness in Kakashi's voice when he spoke about Naruto's attempt and also hi use of words.

…_2 months later…_

Being a genin for the past 2 months had shown Naruto and his team to exactly what it was to be a genin of Konohagakure. The life of a genin was far different from the life of an academy student as a genin was not only supposed to train to grow stronger to protect the village but were also entitled to complete missions which would help the village's finance.

Currently team 7 was on a special capture and retrieval mission assigned to them by the Hokage as the team was now scattered in the forest of Konoha in search of their target. Finally after couple of hours of search Sakura found someone who resembled their target as she alerted the others over the communicators. The other 3 members of team 7 soon reached the location and hid in the shadows of the trees so as to not alert the target.

"What is the distance to the taget?" inquired Kakashi through the communicators.

"5 meters. I am ready anytime", said Naruto.

"I am ready as well", said Sasuke.

"So am I", said Hitomi.

"Me too", said Sakura.

"GO!" commanded Kakashi's voice from the communicators.

The genins moved from their hiding places as they launched a surprise attack on their unsuspecting target. Their target was one of the most renowned for its ferocity as the genins were now witnessing when they went into capture the target. The four genin fought for what seemed like an hour after thy finally captured their target as the three sported scratches all over their face signifying their victory in the battle.

The said target was currently being held by its neck by Sasuke at a distance from his face as Sakura confirmed the identity of the target as the lost pet Tora – the daimyo's wife's cat with Kakashi over the communicator.

…_Naruto's point of view…_

'I still don't understand why Kami is punishing me in such a cruel way', thought Naruto as the team made their way towards the hokage tower.

After the bell test he had decided to gather information on the jounin sensei of his team as the name for some reason had taken his interest. Hatake Kakashi – his team's jounin sensei was hailed as one of Konoha's strongest jounin who was renowned of being a man who had over a 1000 jutsus in arsenal. His hopes were real high of learning a lot of things from the man who knew over a thousand jutsus. But the thing that had got him most interested was that Kakashi was the last living student of the Yondaime Hokage – his father. Finally he could learn of his father through the stories of Kakashi's past without letting anyone know he knew about his parents which were supposed to be a secret.

But through the two months as a genin his hopes had already been washed away as he had leaned nothing from the man, be it a jutsu or something about his father. Kakashi was a chronically late guy as he would always appear a couple of hours late from the time he himself set up as the team would then carry out their usual D-rank missions (chores) and would leave as soon as the team would finish with the missions (chores). He had tried to start a conversation with Kakashi in hopes of he man would speak of his experience as a genin doing the chores and thus continue with his genin life but he would easily change the subject.

Meanwhile he didn't understand what he was to make of the mismatched grouping of four genins known as team 7. It was not that the members didn't complement each other with their abilities (excluding Sakura as she had nothing other than her book smarts), it was completely the contrary as if they would try and work together they would be a force to reckon with.

The only reason the team didn't try to work together was the behaviour of his teammates. Sasuke had the biggest ego he had ever come across. The only person he even listened to was his sister as he considered himself superior to him and Sakura since he was an Uchiha.

Sasuke's sister Hitomi did not believe in her being an Uchiha made her superior to others but she held pride in being an Uchiha. But still she would listen to others if she thought their ideas and plans were reasonable enough. But of all the other team 7 members she was the one Naruto got along well with since it was always fun to tease her.

Sakura remained the same as she was during the academy days i.e. she would try to belittle him in front of Sasuke and continued to fawn over Sasuke. Actually her fawning over Sasuke had turned to hero/god worship as his every word and action was noted down by her.

In the past two moths he had come across the two other teams that had passed their genin test of their jounin sensei. The first was team 10 led by Sarutobi Asuma consisting of Shikamaru, Chouji and Ino. According to Ino their sensei was a one of the laziest person apart from Shikamaru as he loved playing shougi and smoking than training his team. The only thing according to her their sensei would train them in team building exercises.

The second was team 8 led by Yuuhi Kurenai consisting of Kiba, Shino and Hinata. Kurenai was the only sensei to actually teach their team as a jounin sensei is supposed to if Kiba's bragging was about how great (HOT) their sensei was and how she was the best sensei there was.

…_Normal point of view…_

Naruto was brought out of his thoughts at the sight of Tora being hugged to death by its owner.

'Gyahahahaha! In your face stupid cat' thought Naruto.

'No wonder it ran away', thought Sakura.

'I pity Tora', thought Hitomi.

'Hn!' thought Sasuke.

"Now for your next mission team 7… is babysitting an elder's grandson, shopping or potato digging", said Sandaime Hokage looking in the mission list.

"NO! NO! NO! No thank you", called out Naruto putting his hands in cross shape in the front to emphasize the point. Normally he had a lot of patience but the missions (chores) that they did until now was killing all the patience slowly and gradually but chasing that hell cat – Tora was he final straw of his patience, "Give us some better mission Hokage-jiji. The missions we have done so far are nothing but some stupid chores."

'Geez… How annoying…' thought Sakura.

"I agree", said Sasuke.

"These are indeed not ninja missions, Hokage-sama", said Hitomi.

'Sigh… I thought it was about time… but even Hitomi and Sasuke', thought Kakashi.

"Naruto! It seems I have to explain to you what these duties are all about", said the Hokage and went on to explain about various missions and who are they assigned to. (A.N. if you don't know what he says, you haven't read the manga yet, so what the heck are you doing reading this.)

"I understand all that stuff you said, but at least give us a better mission", said Naruto.

The old Hokage thought over it o a few seconds and then said, "Ok! I am giving your team a C-rank mission. It is a protection mission of a certain individual." He then asked his secretary to bring in the said person.

Tazuna walked in the mission office. Seeing him the Hokage said, "Team 7 this is the client you will be protecting. Tazuna-san this is team 7, the one who would be in charge with your protection."

"What the hell! It's just a bunch of snot nosed gaki's!" The man exclaimed in annoyance, taking the bottle he had in his hand and chugging down several gulps.

'He's certainly not what I expected' Naruto thought to himself, his left eye twitching erratically.

"The two girls look like they care more about their looks then ninja duties. The guy with black hair in the shape of a ducks ass looks like he is practicing for some brooding contest. And of all, does any ninja wear orange like the blonde midget and also a Cyclops", said Tazuna taking another gulp of sake.

"Hnn…" scowled Sasuke and went on to pose a new brooding pose.

"Indeed Tazuna-san I do take care of my looks, but I also take my ninja duties and training seriously", said Hitomi looking at the old drunk with annoyance and small disgust.

"Y… Yes", said Sakura. She wanted to respond to Tazuna just the way Hitomi had, but what the man had said was indeed the truth in her case.

'_CHA! We have to look good for Sasuke-kun'_ shouted inner-Sakura as Sakura agreed to it.

'You are right, the old man would never understand' Sakura though which made her feel a lot better.

"Who said ninjas can not wear orange? I love orange, so I wear it. Get your knowledge right old man Tazuna, ninjas are not known for what they wear but are known for their skills", said the blonde shocking the people in the room. "And who are you calling a midget. I am going to kill you." He jumped forward to attack Tazuna but was stopped by Kakashi.

"Now it isn't nice to kill the client before the mission starts", said Kakashi with a eye smile.

"U-u-uh… right…" Tazuna stuttered a bit as he heard the words of the blonde. "Anyways, my name is Tazuna, and I am a master bridge builder. You will escort me back home to Nami No Kuni, where I am building my next bridge." Somehow, despite his drunken stupor, Tazuna managed to straighten himself, "I expect all of you to protect me, even it costs you your lives."

"Right then", Kakashi said as he tried to the cool off the tension between his students and client. "Let's all meet at the east gate tomorrow at 8 in the morning. Pack for about a week's worth mission."

Team 7 left the tower to meet tomorrow for their first C-rank mission.

_**END CHAPTER.**_

**The chapter showed Naruto to be skilled in Fuuton jutsus and Fuuinjutsu as well as Taijutsu. Naruto is already around a mid-chuunin level ninja. His skills in genjutsu are still worse in the fiction but unlike canon he can at least detect a genjutsu though it may take some time. He also has a couple of skills which will be shown as the story progresses.**

**As for Hitomi her skill level is similar to that of Sasuke leaving the fact that she is more inclined to genjutsu than ninjutsu and taijutsu.**

**Next is the journey to Nami no Kuni from where the story will take its own course though it will closely follow canon. **


	4. Journey to Wave

**Hello readers,**

**So finally I start with the Wave-arc. It is this arc in the manga-anime which has a big impact on the story especially the main character Naruto. It is here after the battle on the bridge thus Naruto decides his way of a ninja.**

**Also the arc has one of my favorite characters in it, Haku. Though Haku is categorized as a male in the manga-anime and also sites, the Haku in my story will be a female in my fiction. I have started a poll of what is to be done with Haku so do what.**

_**Chapter 4 – Journey to Wave.**_

It was 7 in the morning that Naruto arrived at his apartment after about 2 hours of morning training. Normally the morning training session continued till about 9 in the morning but today he had to end it early to get ready to meet his team by in an hour for heir first C-rank mission. Even though it was just a normal C-rank mission but still he excited since it was way better than the D-rank missions their sensei chose since being a genin.

A D-rank mission in his opinion was nothing but chores which people felt lazy to do. But for some reason the missions they performed till date were the he felt that they were the worst kind of chores out of all the piles of chores. He was certain by now that they had to take on these chores because of their lazy-ass jounin sensei and was sure the chronologically late bastard was taking sadistic pleasure watching his students suffer.

Naruto took a shower to wash of the sweat from the morning workout after which he proceeded to pack his stuff for the mission. Naruto's attire consisted of dark blue shinobi pants, dark blue tee shirt, orange half sleeve jacket, blue shinobi sandals and fingerless gloves also a shuriken holder was strapped to each thigh.

Naruto sealed his camping gear, basic medical kit, a trap kit, food and water (mostly ramen), extra set of clothes and extra weapons in some scrolls and stuffed them in his utility belt along his waist. He sealed the basic equipment of sealing (brush, ink bottles and any other stuff) in the containment seal on his left wrist. He sealed a few kunais in the seals placed on his gloves. The two seals would only be visible if he applied his chakra to it. The seal on the gloves was special as he could summon the number of kunais he wanted by applying a bit of chakra but only when he wanted. Thus the seal would not interfere when he molded chakra while using a jutsu.

Only 15 minutes before he would meet his team at the east gate. He left his house after activating the security seal he put on his door.

…_At the same time at Uchiha compound…_

The two Uchiha siblings were dressed in their normal attire. The two had packed the essentials such as the camping gear, food, water, medical kit, extra weapons and extra clothes, Hitomi also had packed stuffs girls need (a.n. I am a boy and so have no clue what extra stuffs girls carry). The two were now walking through the Uchiha compound heading towards the east gate to meet their team.

"So what do you think of our team?" asked Hitomi.

Sasuke had a raised eyebrow at the sudden question, "Hnn… Why do you ask?"

The two of them hardly talked about their teammates, hell other than the team meetings and missions they had never interacted with their teammates. Though they had some interesting moments with the team of which most of them were because of the blonde but even then it had never been a reason of talking about them. So his sister asking him about his opinion on the team members had taken Sasuke by surprise.

"Well simple really, from today on until the next week or more we will be with them 24 hours of the day", said Hitomi as it was obvious.

"I see…" said Sasuke.

The two walked in silence for a minute after which Sasuke spoke with an annoyed voice breaking the silence surrounding them, "I am not going to pass any opinion on Kakashi-sensei. As for the other two, Sakura would be good in my books if she stops pestering me for dates and decides to spend some of her time to be a better ninja."

"Ya, I think you are right about that…" said Hitomi as she released a sigh and slowly her lips started to form a grin on her face as she continued "… so you want her to spend some of her time to be a better ninja (to which Sasuke looked at her a bit confused)… so she could swoon over you for most of her time."

Sasuke looked at her with a horrified look as he spoke, "What! How could you even think like that?"

Hitomi couldn't help but laugh at the horrified expression on her brother's face. She knew well enough how much of all people he was the one who hated the fan girls the most and Sakura was one of his biggest fan girl.

Sakura was the member of the '**Uchiha** **Sasuke** **fan** **club'**, a club in which the girls thought they were the perfect brie/girlfriend for Sasuke as they loved him though they knew nothing about the real Sasuke and also thought that he would be there to save them out of any dangers.

Sasuke was glaring daggers at his sister seeing her laugh at his cost and then suddenly a sly grin spread on his face as he spoke, "I swear the dobe is having adverse effect on you being close to him after all you are the **dobe's** **hime**."

Suddenly Hitomi's laughter died as she looked at her brother with her eyes gone wide as she shouted, "I am not Uzumaki's Hime!"

"But he is the only one that calls you **hime**…" said Sasuke with the grin still on his face as his sister's face turned a bit red in embarrassment "… no the only one you allow to call you **HIME**."

At this Hitomi's face had completely turned red as she shouted, "IT IS NOT LIKE THAT!"

Now Sasuke was downright laughing at his sister's embarrassing state as it was seriously a face to funny to watch. While seeing her brother laugh at her Hitomi understood that he was making fun of her which caused her to scowl.

It was a couple of minutes later that on of them finally spoke as Sasuke spoke with a bit of annoyance, "… the dobe is _decent_ for someone without a clan…" with a lot of focus on the word decent where annoyance was spilling like water.

Hitomi was not surprised by to hear the annoyance in Sasuke's voice as he spoke of Naruto and especially when he used the word decent. Naruto was a civilian and an orphan one who lived on his own as far as the Uchiha siblings could remember and also for some reason no one seemed to help him. Hitomi only remembered a few people who actually helped Naruto or even rather associated with him. After knowing Naruto to be an average-decent student at the academy the boy actually turned out to be on par with them, no if she actually was to be truthful then he was better than both of them.

"Yes! Uzumaki is indeed a mystery!" said Hitomi with a small smile on her face to which she received a raised eyebrow from Sasuke. The two walked in silence towards the gates to meet their team.

…_At the same time Hanuro household…_

Hanuro Sakura was currently in her room rechecking the stuffs she had packed last night for the mission. "Make-up kit – check, beautiful dresses to impress Sasuke-kun – check, camping gear – check, basic medical kit – check, weapons – check, food – check."

She had informed her parents of the mission last night after she came home. Both parents being civilians were a bit worried about their daughter. She had told them what C-rank missions were and also there with her would be Kakashi-sensei and the two Uchihas which insured them.

…_0800 hours at the east gate…_

The Uchiha siblings were the first to arrive at the gates 5 minutes before their meeting time. The two were silently thinking over the conversation they had few minutes prior. Sakura was the next to arrive at about exactly 8'o clock. She looked over her teammates who seemed rather busy thinking over something so she decided to stand quietly alongside a tree.

Naruto was the next to arrive as he was about 10 minutes late. It seemed neither his sensei (which was obvious) nor the client had yet arrived at the gates. The Uchiha siblings were present along with Sakura also waiting in anticipation of their first C-rank mission.

Sasuke was the first to notice the blonde and found something rather amusing as he asked, "Where is your stuff, dobe? Or is it that you don't intend to join the mission? Is it because you are afraid to face a few bandits?"

Hitomi and Sakura both turned to the direction where Sasuke was looking as he was making a jab at Naruto to find the blonde in his everyday gear and no luggage on him.

"Good one teme! Never knew you could actually say such mean stuff…" said Naruto with a small sad face then suddenly his face turned back to normal "… what am I saying. You are always like that…"

This caused Sasuke to scowl in annoyance and a bit of anger while Sakura looked at him with a face full of hatred at his jab at her Sasuke-kun. As for Hitomi she just didn't understand what to do again since it was her brother on one side and truth on other but for some reason she lately would support the truth and surely the fact didn't matter that on the side of the truth was Naruto as a giggle left her lips.

"As for my stuff…" said Naruto patting the utility belt on his pants "…I got everything in here."

"BAKA, WE ARE GOING OUT FOR A MISSION WHICH COULD LAST FOR MORE THAN A WEEK", screeched Sakura.

"Now Sakura I am certain you must have heard of sealing scrolls?" asked Naruto to which both the Uchiha's got a knowing look.

"Indeed! What do you take me as an idiot like you?" said Sakura with an annoyed look.

"Then shouldn't you have already concluded that I sealed my stuffs in sealing scrolls which I am carrying in my utility belt", said Naruto to which Sakura felt truly stupid.

…_1 hour later…_

Kakashi showed up with Tazuna at the gates as he found all of his students were already present there and currently resting along the trees on the roadside. He glanced at each of his students to find them at least sufficiently ready on the outside to carry on the mission other then Naruto who was not carrying any stuff with him. He was about to question the blonde when his eyes lay on the book he was reading.

'A book on Fuinjutsu… Now that certainly is interesting…' thought Kakashi.

"Naruto where is your stuff?" asked Kakashi to Naruto to which he pointed at his utility pouch.

Kakashi added two and two together as he again asked "Sealing scrolls?" to which the blonde nodded.

Kakashi wondered where the boy had found the sealing scrolls or did he make those himself as seeing the book he was reading.

"Okay team lets go", said Kakashi in a bored voice as his team and Tazuna followed him as they left the gates of Konoha onwards to Nami no Kuni.

…_On the road to wave…_

Team 7 walked down the road that led to Nami no Kuni along with Tazuna in silence. This was their second day on the road. The whole journey until now was a silent affair apart from the times when Sakura was trying to make Sasuke notice her or the small bickering between Tazuna and Naruto or the time when Naruto talked with Hitomi which mostly ended with an annoyed Hitomi.

It was about noon time as the sun was shining with all its grace above all their heads. As they were walking down the road, both Naruto's eyes caught the sight of a puddle of water in middle of the road. By looking around Naruto could tell that the place wasn't graced with rain in the past couple of days so a water puddle on such a hot ay was suspicious. He had also learned that there were techniques where the surroundings were used to hide so he came to a conclusion that the puddle was an enemy ambush. Naruto looked at his sensei with as he pointed the man with his eyes at the puddle with a 'what-do-we-do-now?' look.

Kakashi caught the look on Naruto's face an gave him his infamous eye smile with a bit of pride while passing a message 'don't act, just relax for now.'

Even though Kakashi had asked him to not act that didn't stop him from keeping an eye on the puddle. He watched two figures rise from the puddle as the team walked past it as they quickly made their way towards Kakashi and wrapped him with the chains attached to their gauntlets quickly killing Kakashi. Watching the pieces of Kakashi fly around caused Naruto to stand in his place shell shocked. His sight caught his team and Tazuna also in the same predicament also he could clearly see the fear in the eyes of Sakura and Tazuna.

Naruto was the first to come out of shock as he watched the two ninjas make their way towards Tazuna. Naruto forced chakra to the sole of his legs as he made his way towards Tazuna to intercept the attack of the two ninjas. He delivered powerful spinning kicks to the midsection of the two making them stumble backwards and loose their balance. Naruto followed the kicks with chakra enhanced punches to the face of the two which flung them backwards a few feet. Naruto would had continued with his assault if he didn't catch the sight of a shuriken and kunai heading towards the two which seemed to be thrown by Hitomi as he glanced towards the others. The two projectiles caught the chain which connected the two assailants and pinned them to the tree behind them. A kick was planted to the face of the two assailants courtesy of Sasuke while they were pinned to the tree. Sakura who by now ha come out of shock seeing Kakashi die moved in front of Tazuna with a kunai in a hand in a defensive position.

Naruto watched as the chains that kept them attached were suddenly removed from their claw gauntlets as the two dashed towards two respective targets. One made a straight beeline for the bridge builder while the second to the one closest to him of team 7 which happened to be Hitomi. Naruto looked at Sasuke and both came to a general decision of protecting the one closest to them as both used chakra to speed off to intercept the closest assailant.

Sakura was really scared as she saw one of the assailants make its way towards her and Tazuna with the sharp claw gauntlet. One part of her mind was screaming her to move out of the place to avoid the attack while the other part kept screaming about her duty as a ninja to save the client. She didn't know which part of her brain were to listen but nothing mattered now as she was rooted in the place with fear so she did what she could do as her grip on the kunai tightened. But before the assailant could reach her she saw the silhouette of Sasuke enter her line of vision and take a defensive position between her and the assailant.

On he other hand with Hitomi, she was fairing way better than Sakura as she seemed ready to stop the assailants attack and counter it. Also while she steadied herself for a counterattack, she couldn't help but wonder what the reason for using the claw gauntlet as she was certain that it wasn't meant only for injuring the opponents. Her eyes darted to her side when she felt a presence close to her and was a tidbit surprised to find it to be Uzumaki. She could tell that he was here to assist her as she saw him smiling at her to which she returned with hr own smile as both got ready to go on the attack.

But both the assailants never reached their two targets as both were hit defeated by a blur to all who happened to be Kakashi. Kakashi stood in front of the five with one assailant on his shoulder while other in his arm unconscious to which everyone relaxed a bit and also surprised to see Kakashi alive.

"KAKASHI-SENSEI! YOU ARE ALIVE, BUT HOW?" called out Sakura at the top of her voice.

Meanwhile the remaining three genins looked at the place were Kakashi's body parts were scattered to only find pieces of logs scattered around. The three easily concluded that their sensei had used **kawarimi**__**no**__**jutsu** to escape being cut into pieces and must have used some sort off genjutsu to fool all that the assailants had succeeded.

'Showoff' thought Hitomi and Sasuke sending a mild glare at their sensei.

'I should have expected something of this sort. He already knew of the puddle' Naruto thought as he berated himself all the while shooting annoyed glares at their sensei.

"Good job you four at standing against an unexpected enemy ninja duo (which caused the four genin to smile)… Though at first you four were shocked to move (which annoyed the four)… but it was good that you all quickly regained your composure…" said Kakashi with an eye smile which further annoyed the genins.

"And whose fault was that?" asked an annoyed Naruto.

"Ah! Sorry, sorry, I wanted to know who the two were after", said Kakashi completely dismissing his annoyed students.

"Wait you mean to tell me that you already knew there was someone about to attack us?" asked Tazuna who until now was rather too quite considering the bickering that would take place between him and Naruto.

It was Naruto who answered his question instead of Kakashi, "Yes, it was rather simple! A puddle of water in middle of the street in such a hot afternoon! Also the surrounding indicated that it hadn't seen rain at least for the past couple of days."

When Naruto mentioned this, his teammates just looked at him with surprise that the blonde actually knew that thre was going to b attacked and they didn't especially Sasuke.

"It is just as Naruto said. I decided to only take action after I confirmed their target. Was it a rivalry between shinobis of different villages? Or you the bridge builder?" said Kakashi to which Tazuna started sweating hoping that they wouldn't find out.

Those reactions on Tazuna's face weren't missed by Kakashi as he continued speaking, "By their movements and your reaction it is simple to figure out that their target was you and also you knew of shinobis being after your life (now Tazuna was sweating bullets)… but still you felt it unnecessary to mention while you requested for the mission… It is easily a B-rank mission with the shinobis after your life… so care to explain why you left out such important information?"

Noticing the seriousness in Kakashi's voice Tazuna decided to tell them everything about the mission as well as the reason of his lies so far. He told them about Gatou and his goons and how they had taken over their small village in Nami no Kuni. How the man had taken over he seas that surrounded Nami no Kuni cutting it from the main land thus leaving the country in a financial debacle since they relied highly on the sea for fishery and trade. How the bridge he was building was the only hope for people of his village. Since the trade and fishery had suffered because of Gatou the village and neither h had enough money to pay for high ranking missions which was the reason of his lie.

"Has it is, this is not a mission for a genin team. So as it stands me and my genin team will return back to the village…" said Kakashi to which the genins looked at him disbelief.

Tazuna knew this was coming and also he didn't wish to see the kids to take on the mission but he just couldn't let the only protection to leave. His conscience was in a jam as on one side were these genins while on the other was his village and family as it was time to male a decision. Finally he decided to be selfish for his village and family as even though in front of him were twelve year olds but they were the only hope he had now as he removed his last trump card.

Tazuna started speaking with his head lowered with a small hint of sadness, "Well… if you quit the mission now… I will definitely be killed… but…" as he suddenly started laughing as he spoke out loud "Don't worry about it! If I die my cute 10 year old grandson will cry for a few days! Oh yeah, and my daughter will live a sad life hating Konoha ninjas forever. But it won't be your fault. Not at all!"

The five Konoha ninjas looked with disbelieving look a huge sweat drops as finally Kakashi spoke as he released a huge sigh, "well, I guess we have no choice. We will protect you at least until you get back to your country."

…_2 days later…_

The group of six headed to Nami no Kuni with relative peace. Since the encounter with the two missing-nins couple of days back who according to Kakashi were demon brothers of Kirigakure everyone had been on constant alert for possible enemy attacks. But so far they encountered neither other missing-nins nor any bandits which according to both Kakashi and Naruto seemed to feel that there was certainly something wrong as their destination was now just a few hours of walk away.

Currently Team 7 along with Tazuna were aboard a small boat which one of the villagers of Nami no Kuni was rowing across the sea to that separated Hi no Kuni from Nami no Kuni. The man who was rowing the boat always rowed the boa through the area where there was a thick fog cover. When asked why he did so and also was not using the motor, he said that it was to keep them all from being detected by Gatou and his thugs. After a few minutes of journey they were able to see the bridge and indeed true to Tazuna's words the bridge was magnificent and gigantic.

After getting of the boat the six of them took a road through the forests which ha a small fog cover as they made their way towards Tazuna's home. But for some odd reason Naruto found the fog to be slowly thickening as the visibility started to drop. Naruto threw a kunai in the nearby bushes when he thought that he heard some kind of movement in the bushes startling the others but from the bushes came out a white snow rabbit which hurried itself out of the area.

"BAKA NARUTO, WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKI NG?" screeched Sakura tying to punch Naruto which he dodged.

"Shhh, be quite Sakura! I thought I heard something in the bushes…" said Naruto as he pointing at the bushes to which the others were going to say something but he said "… and I am damn sure it wasn't the rabbit."

'That was a snow rabbit and still in the summer its fur was still white. It was probably used for a **kawarimi**' thought Kakashi as he caught the sight of the escaping rabbit. Since snow rabbits were not native to this area and also its fur was snow white indicating it was kept in a cold place as the weather here wasn't cold enough to turn its fur white.

As Kakashi was busy thinking who would use a rabbit for a **kawarimi**, he forced chakra throughout his boy getting ready to engage any enemy-nin as he was certain this time it would be a jounin level ninja. And a few seconds later h prepared himself to fight, his Inuzuka level hearing caught the sound of something cutting trough the air and heading towards them as he shouted, "GET DOWN."

The genins and Tazuna did exactly as Kakashi shouted as they could hear the seriousness, panic and a bit of fear in his voice. Naruto and Hitomi grabbed Tazuna and forced him on the ground as both Sakura and Sasuke also ducked into a sleeping position. All of them felt something pass from above them a second later they had ducked down on the ground. Looking at the place where the supposed object had went, all of them paled at the sight of super large sword stuck in a tree. But what caused them to shake in a bit of fear was the sight of the half naked missing-nin standing on the sword.

The man was shirtless wearing only pants and armbands. His face below the eyes was covered in bandages. He wore his headband on his head in a tilted fashion. The mark on the headband signified he was ninja from Kirigakure no Sato and the slash mark along it marked him as a missing ninja.

"Well, well, if it isn't missing-nin Momochi Zabuza from Kirigakure no Sato", said Kakashi as his eyes fixed on the man on the sword.

"Everyone stand guard over Tazuna and whatever happens don't interfere in this fight as this is on a whole new level… For this I will have to do this", said Kakashi lifting his hitai-te above his left eye.

"No wonder the demon brothers were defeated. To think I will be meeting you here and also getting to see your left eye on our first encounter. Kakashi Hatake of Konohagakure no Sato, famed as Copy ninja Kakashi and also Sharingan no Kakashi, the man who has copied over a 1000 jutsus", said Zabuza.

When Kakashi lifted the hitai-te it revealed to all the **Sharingan** with 3 tomoe in his left eye which caused the Uchiha-siblings at him in utter shock while for Sakura and Tazuna looked at him in confusion. The only one who didn't look confused or shocked was Naruto as he had read about the left **Sharingan **eye of Kakashi in one of his father's journal. Though it didn't explain under what circumstances did Kakashi get the eye but it was said to be a gift from his dying friend and teammate Uchiha Obito.

'**Sharingan**, but how?' was the thought that roamed the minds of both Sasuke and Hitomi.

Naruto watched Zabuza disappear from the tree along with his sword in smoke and felt him reappear on the water surface nearby. Naruto saw Zabuza stand on the water in a very unique stance which he concluded to be some sort of hand seal as he felt Zabuza's chakra start to rise.

"Let's see you fight against this **KIRIGAKURE NO JUTSU**", everyone heard Zabuza say as the mist in the area gradually increased to the point it was hard to even see what or who was next to you.

"He will come after me first. Momochi Zabuza… as a shinobi of Kirigakure… he was known as an expert of **Muon**__**satsugai**__**(silent**__**killing)** art. You don't even notice until you're already dead… it's not like I can use the **Sharingan** perfectly. You guys be careful", said Kakashi in a serious tone.

The four genins moved further close to Tazuna as per Kakashi's order as the seriousness in his voice told them that they were to stay on complete guard. The mist gradually increased with every second as also the air around felt really heavy as it was filled with powerful killing intent which made all the 4 genins along with Tazuna shiver.

Suddenly every one heard Zabuza's voice "8 choices. Liver, Lungs, Spine, Clavicle vein, Neck vein, Kidneys, Heart. Which one should I go after?"

'What an incredibly dangerous killing intent. It feels like I will die if I make a make a move…' thought Sasuke while shivering and sweating.

'Un… unbelievable… this is what it means to feel like to die' though Hitomi while she to was shivering and sweating even more than Sasuke.

Sakura was slowly drifting to unconsciousness with the amount of killing intent.

Tazuna was in same state as Sakura as he thought 'is this how fight between two ninjas happen?'

'Hold yourself steady Naruto. This isn't the time to buckle under pressure' thought Naruto while trying to control his shaking.

"Don't worry; I will protect you all even if it kills me. I don't let my comrades die", said Kakashi with an eye smile as he felt the condition of his charges as he released his own killing intent to negate that of Zabuza.

"We will see about that", they all heard Zabuza say and suddenly he was in between the genins and Tazuna.

As he was about to cut Tazuna in half, Kakashi appeared in front of him stopping his strike as he pierced Zabuza with a kunai. But the Zabuza that was pierced turned out to be a **mizu bunshin **as a second Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi about to cut in half.

"SENSEI! BEHIND YOU!" yelled out Naruto as he found the second Zabuza appear behind Kakashi ready to cut him in half.

Zabuza swung his sword in a horizontal arc cutting Kakashi in half to which the genins and Tazuna turned pale green as Sakura screamed in fear. But just like the first Zabuza turned into water after being pierced the same happened with Kakashi as he to turn into water indicating it was a **mizu bunshin** as a second Kakashi appeared behind the second Zabuza with a kunai to his neck.

"It's over!" said Kakashi in a deadly tone.

Then Zabuza went on to explain how Kakashi even in the thick mist copied the **mizu bunshin no jutsu **and fooled him. But as he finished his explanation another Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi ready to swing his sword as Kakashi pierced the one in front of him to be another clone. Kakashi was able to avoid the first strike of the sword by Zabuza as he crouched on the ground. But before he could counter attack, Zabuza used his sword as a base delivering a strong kick which sent Kakashi to the nearby water source. Zabuza intended to continue with another sword swing but couldn't as his path was blocked by makibishi.

The four genins couldn't believe the ease with Kakashi was taken down by the missing-nin Zabuza and this small fight also proved the enemy was really strong physically too.

Naruto looked at the direction where Kakashi had fallen inside the water source as he found him coming out of the water. Kakashi's face looked to him as though he was thinking about something which had to do with the water surface he was surfacing on. He then watched Zabuza blur into existence behind Kakashi as the missing-nin quickly spread through hand seals to which Kakashi looked worried as the man captured him a water bubble prison. From what Naruto could remember that the jutsu Zabuza used was called **Suirō**__**no**__**Jutsu**__**(water**__**prison**__**jutsu) **from all the scrolls and information he read upon water jutsus. If he remembered correctly, the **Suirō**__**no**__**Jutsu**__**(water**__**prison**__**jutsu) **was one of Kirigakure's hidden jutsu which according to information is used to trap enemy-nin in a bubble of water which is literally inescapable.

"Kids now days think themselves as real ninjas when they wear a hitai-te… But you know what? A real ninja is someone who has survived numerous brushes with death", said Zabuza while creating a **mizu**__**bunshin**__of himself.

"Basically… once you are good enough to be listed in my hand book…" continued the clone Zabuza from where the real left but was stopped as his eyes lay on the fifty or so blonde haired kid in front of him.

While Zabuza and his clone were trying to give a speech about real ninjas, Naruto gathered his chakra to perform the **kage bunshin no jutsu **creating an army of fifty Naruto with the hope that this many would be enough to distract the clone Zabuza enough for him to execute his plan.

"I would have loved to listen to you speak but first I have a sensei to save…" said the real Naruto as all the clones seemed ready to charge.

"What are you doing Naruto? He is not someone you guys can beat. Take Tazuna-san and run away. As long as he is keeping me trapped he can't move. The **mizu**__**bunshin**__cannot go very far from the real body", shouted Kakashi as he looked towards Naruto.

"I know that sensei but I am not going to abandon a comrade. Didn't you say before 'in the ninja world those who break the codes and rules are thrash… but those who ignore their comrades are lower than thrash', right?" said the real Naruto clones.

"CHARGE!" shouted the real Naruto as all the clones dashed forward to attack Zabuza's clone at the same time in hopes of subduing him with numbers. But the idea seemed futile as Zabuza easily threw of all the clones that had jumped on him with intention to subdue him.

Watching all the clones of Naruto sent flying away with nothing but pure strength the remaining three members of Team 7 and Tazuna could only think one thing about Zabuza 'He is really strong!'

"**Kage**__**bunshin**__**no**__**jutsu**,__that's a very interesting jutsu you have in your arsenal blondie. For a genin like you to have one of Konoha's forbidden jutsu in his arsenal, you must be someone special…" said the clone Zabuza.

'Forbidden jutsu!' was the only thing the other three genins could think as they heard that the **kage bunshin **was a forbidden jutsu as all there knew what forbidden jutsus were exactly were.

"But you are still far away from being a true ninja. When I was your age… these hands were already dyed with blood", said Zabuza as he made a scary expression looking at his hands scaring all.

"Devil… Zabuza…" said Kakashi in a dark tone to the real Zabuza.

"Ah… so you have heard a little about it", said the real Zabuza with a big grin on his face.

As the little conversation was taking place no one noticed a couple of Naruto disappear out of the fight when they charged on Zabuza's clone as one Naruto was still with them. As suddenly all eyes darted upwards from where they heard Naruto shout.

"Take this you eye brow less freak", shouted Naruto as he threw a gigantic shuriken directly at Zabuza from midair with all the force he could.

"A shuriken won't work against me", said the Zabuza clone as he watched the shuriken head towards him as he placed his hands on his swords handle.

But to his and others surprise the shuriken flew by his side as it was aimed for the real Zabuza.

"I see… you're aiming it at the real me… but…" said the real Zabuza as he caught the shuriken with his free left hand "… That's not enough!"

But the moment he stopped the incoming shuriken his eyes landed on the shadow of the shuriken which still seemed to be making its way towards him.

"Another one in the shuriken's shadow?" said the real Zabuza completely taken by surprise.

Meanwhile even Kakashi was taken by surprise of the shuriken in the shadow of the first one as he thought 'that's **Kage** **Shuriken** **no** **Jutsu** **(shadow shuriken no jutsu)**'

All the three remaining genins watched in surprise and awe as they saw the second shuriken about to hit Zabuza.

…_Hitomi's point of view…_

'A second shuriken hiding in the blind spot…! Ingenious!' thought Hitomi as she glanced at the two Naruto in front of her with a small blush on her face.

"But!" the real Zabuza said as he jumped on his place letting the shuriken pass by harmlessly as he spoke again making a dark face, "still not enough."

The three looked completely scared now as they saw how simply the man dodged the shuriken which was to close to him without losing his ground.

'He dodged it!' shouted Hitomi in her mind as she glanced at Naruto to see how the boy must be feeling now that his idea had failed. But instead of seeing an angry or frustrate look on the face of the two Naruto she saw a smirk which she usually saw when one of his pranks were sure going to succeed.

As she tried to think what was the reason the two identical blondes were smirking about her eyes went back towards where Zabuza and Kakashi were. But what happened next took her by complete surprise and looking around she found that she was not the only one to be surprised by this as all saw the second shuriken transform into Naruto as it threw a kunai directly at Zabuza which she was certain he couldn't avoid now unless…

And as she thought, Zabuza did avoid the kunai by removing his hands of the water bubble and the only thing the kunai did was give a cut on one of Zabuza's cheeks. She watched the amount of anger with which Zabuza looked at Naruto scared her for the blonde's life. She watched as Zabuza was about to throw the shuriken in his hand at Naruto who was had just landed on the water surface.

"MOVE! NARUTO!" she shouted at the top of the voice hoping that would somehow save the blonde.

But in the midst of her worry for the blonde she hadn't seen to what had happened to Kakashi as she now saw him stopping the shuriken before it even left Zabuza's hand with the metal plate on his gloves. She didn't understand as how Kakashi had gotten out of the water bubble prison. She tried to fix the dots and got a general idea of that the prison only stood until the user kept one of his hands on it to keep it stable.

'Did Naruto already know that?' wondered Hitomi as she glanced at the two Naruto in front of her whose grins had widened.

"Kakashi-sensei!" she heard Sakura shout in pure joy at seeing their sensei was no longer captured.

"… Naruto, great plan" she heard Kakashi say and she could also hear he pride in her sensei's voice.

She then listened to how Naruto had used the **kage bunshins **as the means for distraction so that no one would see him transform into the shuriken. Also that he had no delusion that he could defeat Zabuza as his only aim was to save Kakashi from the water prison as he had come to realize that he had to separate the real Zabuza away from the bubble to release Kakashi from it. She couldn't help but help but think of how the plan was ingenious especially it being made up on the spot.

…_End of Hitomi's point of view…_

…_Naruto's point of view…_

From his place on the water surface Naruto watched in awe as the two jounin level ninjas separate from each other and started forming hand seals. The speed at which the two formed the seals mesmerized him as he could hardly keep a track of what seals the two were performing.

Even though he could hardly track down as to which exact seals the two were performing, he had a feeling that both were performing the seals for the same jutsu. And so he was proven right as both of them used the **Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu (Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique) **which created two gigantic water dragons which clashed with each other and so did Kakashi and Zabuza with a kunai and the sword respectively.

While the two used the **Suiryūdan no Jutsu**, the water surface became violent causing Naruto to use more chakra to keep himself steady on the water surface. He then watched as Kakashi not only use the same jutsu as Zabuza at the same time but also was doing the same movememts as Zabuza and the biggest surprise was that he was able to complete the interrupted sentence of Zabuza as the two performed seals for another jutsu.

Naruto knew of the ability of **Sharingan **to copy all forms of nin-tai-gen jutsus but what he was watching Kakashi do was completely ridiculous. His mind started to flood with various reasons Kakashi was capable of doing such a feat as he knew that the **Sharingan **eye wasn't he main cause of this. But what happened next was something he couldn't believe as he saw Kakashi complete the jutsu which the two were making seals for before Zabuza though it did cement one of his theories.

Naruto made his way far away from the water surface as possible as Kakashi used the **Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu (Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique)** which created a gigantic waterfall which headed towards Zabuza. Even getting out of the water Naruto was struck by the waves caused by the jutsu and hoped that he never would be on the receiving end of the jutsu as he saw the destruction it caused in its path.

He forced chakra to his feet as he dashed towards the place where Zabuza and Kakashi were as he took in the destruction caused by one single jutsu. He finally reached the place as he stood at a safe distance to see Zabuza barely standing with the help of the tree as kunais were stuck in his legs and arms as Kakashi was crouched on the branch of the tree.

"How…? Can you see the future?" he heard Zabuza ask to Kakashi as he had a clue what the eyebrow less freak meant as he watched the fight from real close distance.

"Yeah… you are going to die", he heard Kakashi say.

He knew that his sensei was about to kill Zabuza which caused him to feel a bi nervous as this would be the first time he was going to see someone kill someone else. But he was a ninja and this was how the life of ninjas was and Zabuza was their enemy. So he steeled himself to what he was about to witness. But before his sensei could go for the kill he saw a couple of senbon strike Zabuza's neck instantly killing him.

"Hehe… You're right. He's dead. *insert heart*" he heard a feminine voice.

His eyes traveled to the source of the voice to find what looked like a female ninja wearing a white mask with red wavy design with the insignia of Kirigakure on it. And from her small conversation with Kakashi he found out that she was a hunter-nin of Kiri who was searching for Zabuza to kill him. He watched as the hunter-nin landed before the dead body of Zabuza which Kakashi confirmed him to be dead and took it of somewhere else to dispose it off and the secrets it held.

…_End of Naruto's point of view…_

Kakashi sighed in relief has he saw the Hunter-nin disappear with the dead body of Zabuza as he pulled his hitai-te over his **Sharingan **eye as he spoke, "now, we have to get Tazuna-san back to his home. Let's go!"

"Hahaha! Super thanks, guys! Come over to my house and relax for a while!" said Tazuna with a big smile on his face.

"That hunter-nin was about our age… and yet that powerful…" said Naruto as his eyes were still fixed on the place from where the hunter-nin disappeared.

The other three couldn't argue with Naruto as hey too ha the same feeling as Naruto as they saw the ease with which the hunter-nin killed Zabuza. And to add to the fact was that the hunter-nin seemed to be about their age or at the most a couple of years older than them.

"You are right Naruto. In the ninja world there exists kids younger than you guys and yet stronger than me", said Kakashi.

'How did the hunter-nin obtain such power? I intend to gain such power to kill him' thought Sasuke.

Hitomi knew that the words of Kakashi were indeed true as she knew of one such person that being her elder brother. Now that she thought about it, her eyes drifted towards Naruto as she wondered if the boy would also be that powerful if someone actually looked after his training. She remembered well enough that most teachers at the academy outright neglected him and his training/education and on some cases she felt that they even tried to sabotage it.

'Naruto, your mystery just keeps on increasing…' she thought as she looked at the blonde with a small smile on her face.

The team decided to head to Tazuna's house for some well deserved rest especially for their sensei. But before they could take another step, Kakashi collapsed because of chakra exhaustion.

"SENSEI!" the four genins shouted gathering around Kakashi along with Tazuna as all looked worried about the one eyed scarecrow.

"Hey, what happened to him?" asked Tazuna with concern in his voice.

"Kakashi-sensei doesn't seem that hurt… must be chakra exhaustion", said Hitomi as she kneeled down checking her sensei for any form of injuries.

"But how?" asked Sakura.

"It must be because of the **Sharingan** eye. He does always keeps it covered all the time", said Naruto gaining curious looks from the others.

Naruto noticed the curious glares as he answered the unspoken question, "it must take a huge amount of chakra to use the **Sharingan **eye… also the last jutsu surely took a lot out of him."

No one could argue with the blonde's logic about the **Sharingan **eye and also the last water jutsu as all had witnessed the destruction caused by the jutsu. Such a powerful jutsu would surely need a large amount of chakra to execute.

"Well we are going to get nothing staying here so let's head to old man Tazuna's house before we encounter more enemy and also there Kakashi-sensei can rest a bit", said Naruto while looking at Tazuna who just nodded.

"Oi Sasuke! Help me carry sensei!" said Naruto as he went on to lift Kakashi from one side.

…_At Tazuna's house…_

Currently the four genins were sitting around a sleeping Kakashi as they trying to remove the mask to get a look at how their sensei's face looked beneath it. Suddenly Kakashi woke in a sort of panic startling the four of their job as they quickly hurried to the corner of the room in hopes Kakashi didn't notice what they were doing.

'What am I missing?' thought Kakashi as he woke up with an uneasy feeling.

"You finally woke up it seems", said Tazuna who had just entered the room along with a woman in her late 20's and a boy about 7-8 years old.

Tazuna introduced the two as his daughter Tsunami and his grandson Inari to Kakashi who had just woken up. Tsunami thanked the ninjas for safely escorting her father back home and also looked a bit concerned about the team and their sensei. Inari didn't say anything and just quietly left the room seeing which Tsunami left after him excusing her and apologizing for her son's behaviour.

"Sensei you look a bit worried…" said Naruto as he looked at Kakashi's face.

"I was just thinking about the fight with Zabuza…" said Kakashi earning confused look from all his students and Tazuna as he then looked at everyone as he asked "… Do you all remember what weapon the hunter-nin used? And also what happened afterwards?"

"Well the hunter-nin used senbons", said Hitomi supplying the answer to the first question.

"And afterwards took Zabuza's dead body to dispose it of", said Sakura answering the second question.

Sakura, Hitomi, Sasuke and Tazuna couldn't understand what Kakashi was getting at trying to remember the fight with Zabuza especially the part where the hunter-nin appeared and how things went after it. But so was not the case with Naruto as he was trying to figure out what Kakashi was trying to say as he knew one thing that a man as Kakashi would never joke around such a topic.

When Sakura asked who that masked-nin was, Kakashi told her that the kid would be a member of Kirigakure's special hunter-nin team as it is them who wore such masks. He then explained to all about what the job of the hunter-nin exactly was and that is disposing of bodies without a trace as they were also called as erasers. He then explained why such a team was necessary for each village as a ninja's body consists of various secrets of their hidden villages from jutsus, different chakra types, herbs and other things which could reveal village secrets. As an example he mentioned that if enemies were to capture him or his dead body they could work to find out secrets about **Sharingan **and other things he knew of thus giving them excess to those jutsus and information. Thus highlighting how important the hunter-nins were to a village especially in case of a missing-nin and ninjas who abandon their country as he termed them 'specialist who guard village secret'.

"No sound, no smell… that is a ninja's end", said Kakashi after his long lecture on hunter-nins.

"So that Zabuza has been chopped up and disposed of? SCARY!" said Sakura as she was completely frightened as she imagined pieces of Zabuza's body scaring all.

For a few seconds silence regained as finally Naruto spoke putting forth the conclusion he ha come up after he heard the explanation, "So you mean to say that Zabuza is alive."

"NARUTO-BAKA! You really are an idiot! Kakashi-sensei checked on Zabuza and he was surely dead", said Sakura with a scowl as she didn't want to see Zabuza ever again.

"Actually Sakura, I think Naruto is right", said Kakashi which caused all everyone's eyes apart from Naruto to widen while Sakura and Tazuna seemed to be outright frightened.

"But sensei you checked Zabuza's pulse yourself and declared him dead", said Hitomi as she also was a bit scared remembering the fight between the jounin level ninjas.

Kakashi went to explain how when he checked on Zabuza, the man must have been put on a momentary death. As the weapons used were senbons which are mostly used for disabling a person but in a hands of a medic-nin could be truly deadly. As all hunter-nins are well knowledgeable about the human body because of their job and it is very easy for them to put a human body in a momentary death state. He also said that the hunter-nin dispose of their target's body on spot while the hunter-nin they met took off with Zabuza's body. this news scared Sakura and Tazuna a bit further but caused Sasuke, Hitomi and Naruto to shake a bit in excitement in hopes of fighting Zabuza again and also the hunter-nin who was now conclude his ally. He also said that it would take about a week or two for Zabuza to attack again as it would take that much time for him to recover the injuries and momentary death state.

"For the next few days I will be training you, so that you can also help more in the fight", said Kakashi when asked what they were to do now.

"How can training for a week help to fight someone like Zabuza? With whom even you had trouble fighting with", asked Hitomi.

"Now, now don't count yourselves down. You all did well against the demon brothers… and that was a nice plan you implemented against Zabuza", said Kakashi as he looked at Naruto who flashed his biggest grin back at Kakashi happy to be praised.

"But it was also risky… you should have taken help from you teammates", said Kakashi in a stern voice.

"At first I was going to make them join my plan, but it all changed when Zabuza decided to talk about his past", said Naruto in his defense earning a questioning look from all and a raised eyebrow from Kakashi.

'Does he know?' thought Kakashi.

Naruto decided to continue as no one asked him anything but seemed curious, "I don't know what Zabuza intended to say but whatever it was, it was certainly not good as with each word he spoke your facial expressions (Pointing at Kakashi) turned pale and angry at the same time. It sure was something that would have destroyed the little confidence we had. So I decided to take quick action."

"I see… and yes you were right", said Kakashi as he then went on with what Zabuza was going to say.

Kakashi told them about the final obstacle before graduating the ninja academy at Kiri and the reason it was cancelled ten years ago. The reason being the appearance of a devil that killed all the students in cold blood even though he was not a ninja and that devil happened to be Zabuza. When Kakashi was finished with his little story from the past, everyone's face in the room had turned pale as no word was spoken for the next couple of minutes.

"YOU DID A GREAT JOB BRAT!" shouted Tazuna patting Naruto's shoulder defusing the gloomy atmosphere in the room.

'It is good that Naruto ended the speech in middle or we would be frozen just like now against a jounin who wanted to kill us' thought Hitomi letting a smile grace her face as she looked at the blonde in admiration.

'Naruto was able to come up with all this' thought Sakura looking at Naruto. _'CHA! I bet even Sasuke-kun could have done all this'_ said inner-Sakura to which Sakura only nodded.

'Damn you dobe, even at a time like that you were able to steady yourself and fight while I an Uchiha could not do a thing' thought Sasuke as he was for the first time felt inferior to someone.

'But next time I will be prepared and I will show that I am superior to you dobe' thought Sasuke as he sent a small glare at the blonde.

But while he glared at the blonde and then turned to look at his sister to see what she might be thinking. But he wasn't ready to see his sister look at the blonde with the eyes similar to the Hyuuga girl as the academy as he thought 'WHAT THE!'

_**End Chapter.**_

**Now as all you have noticed that Naruto didn't do much additional in the fight between Zabuza and Kakashi. Simply because those two are at a level which Naruto isn't. Naruto is at a mid-chunnin level and as I think of it the difference between a chunnin level ninja and jounin level ninja is big. **

**Do vote in the pole.**


End file.
